Dragon Age: The Veilguard director says chasing industry trends with Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem "starts to dilute your focus," so he wanted to get back to BioWare's "very real strength"

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Character building and storytelling remains king

Dragon Age The Veilguard screenshot showcasing the skeleton Manfred
(Image credit: EA/BioWare)

BioWare creative director John Epler says it was important for Dragon Age: The Veilguard to return to the studio's "very real strength" of character-building and storytelling as other recent projects "didn't center that strength as well as they could have."

Speaking on the My Perfect Console podcast alongside fellow The Veilguard director Corinne Busche, Epler says BioWare was able to return to its roots with publisher EA's blessing after seeing its focus diluted by chasing industry trends.

"So for us, it was really understanding what it is that people come to the studio to do - they work here for a reason, they want to make big stories that allow you to be a big hero of your own creation, but also a focus on characters, a focus on that experience of living in a different world."

Iain Harris
Iain Harris
News Editor, Games

I joined GamesRadar+ in May 2022 following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When I'm not running the news team on the games side, you'll find me putting News Editor duties to one side to play the hottest JRPG of 20 years ago or pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new cloak – the more colourful, the better.