Dragon Age 5: Ex–BioWare Lead Writer Doubts Revival Under EA, Shares His Plan

David Gaider, the former lead writer behind the Dragon Age series at BioWare, doesn’t believe the fantasy franchise will ever come back while publisher EA still owns the project—though he’s got a clear idea of what he’d try to do if a fifth entry somehow landed on his desk.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard arrived in late 2024 to mixed reactions, after a development cycle that many players experienced as a long, difficult road. The aftermath reportedly hit BioWare hard: the studio was downsized, and the remaining team members were redirected toward pre-production for the next Mass Effect. Meanwhile, key figures who had been driving The Veilguard were reportedly reassigned within EA or let go entirely.

With BioWare now focused solely on Mass Effect, Gaider thinks another Dragon Age is unlikely—especially any time soon. He’s also not expecting anything before Mass Effect 5 releases. EA hasn’t provided a firm window for that sequel, but it’s been framed as likely being a couple of years out.

Still, if the stars really aligned and he got the chance to take the franchise forward again, Gaider says he’d be willing to jump in. “I do like a challenge,” he told PC Gamer. “So if, out of some weird alignment of the stars, somebody handed the Dragon Age franchise back to me and said, ‘Breathe the life back into this baby,’ that’d be a tough one, but I think that’d be an interesting thing to do.”

What Gaider would change if Dragon Age returned

As a 20-year BioWare veteran, Gaider previously served as lead writer on the first three Dragon Age games. He left the studio before the final version of what would become Dragon Age: The Veilguard entered full production. His writing credits also include work on Neverwinter Nights, several expansions for Baldur’s Gate 2, and Anthem, which didn’t live up to expectations.

In Gaider’s view, the best path would be returning to the elements that made Dragon Age stand out in the first place. “I’d go back to the basics of what made Dragon Age appeal to so many people in the first place,” he said. “And go somewhere dark and dangerous, and do things that will make people upset. I think that’s what I would want to do with it.”

That approach would mark a clear contrast with The Veilguard, which drew criticism not only for its writing, but also for specific characters. Those characters faced backlash for being portrayed as too young and for story beats that some players felt were too blunt or on-the-nose. At the same time, The Veilguard wasn’t without its draws: Gaider points out that whenever Solas showed up, it was always interesting, and he also highlights the game’s Mass Effect-inspired final stretch as a solid closing chapter for the series’ story up to that point.

Dragon Age’s major loose ends are already tied up

Even with uncertainty around what happens next, Gaider notes that the series has effectively finished the major unresolved plot threads it had been carrying for a while. That gives the impression the franchise won’t return for a long time—at least not until after the “long rest” of Mass Effect’s next era. He also references comments from Sheryl Chee, The Veilguard senior writer who reportedly moved from BioWare to work on Iron Man at Motive. Chee said last year that “DA isn’t dead because it’s yours now,” framing the series as continuing through fan fiction and fan-created artwork.

So could Dragon Age still come back? Gaider doesn’t sound optimistic about EA making it happen. “From Electronic Arts? Unlikely,” he concluded. “Throughout the entire time I was there, we were always one breath away from the project being shelved. The thing that happened is that we kept releasing games, and it would sell much better than they thought it should, and it kept surprising them.”

That pattern, he suggests, didn’t hold for The Veilguard. EA has only confirmed that the game reached 1.5 million players during its first three months on sale, which was reportedly half of the publisher’s expectations. For comparison, Dragon Age: Inquisition remains BioWare’s biggest seller, having shifted 12 million units.