Ex-BioWare lead writer would take the series to a 'dark and dangerous' place given the chance, while also going 'back to the basics of what made Dragon Age appeal to so many people in the first place'

• Former Dragon Age lead writer and creator David Gaider says it's "unlikely" the beloved RPG will have a future at EA
• However, he would be open to working on the series again
• Gaider would return to the series' roots and make a "dark and dangerous" game

Dragon Age creator and former narrative lead David Gaider doesn't believe the beloved role-playing game (RPG) series has a future at EA, but would be interested in working on a new game if given the chance.

Speaking to PC Gamer, Gaider said it's "unlikely" we'll ever see another Dragon Age game made by BioWare under EA's control and explained how, while working at the studio, it always felt like "We were always one breath away from the [current] 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," he said.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard was the exception, which underperformed for EA. However, the publisher was also reported to have been pushing BioWare to incorporate live-service elements into the game, but when the studio stuck to its RPG roots, CEO Andrew Wilson called it a mistake.

Gaider suggested that the Mass Effect series was EA's golden child, and even if it didn't sell as well the team "got excuses, because it was an action-oriented game. They thought it should sell more. It was slicker."

While Gaider believes Dragon Age is dead under EA's ownership, he would be interested in taking on the series again and returning to what made the dark fantasy series so loved in the first place.

"If you'd asked me that in the past, I would have said absolutely not. That I’d done my time," he said. "I left the Dragon Age team before I left BioWare. After Inquisition came out, I went to [Dragon Age's creative director] Mike Laidlaw and I said, ‘I've told all the stories with mages and dragons and what have you that I have in me. And I could keep going, but if I keep working on this, it's going to become rote, and I think that would be a disservice to the team. So I should step aside, let fresher voices rise’. I don't know if that was the right decision, but it felt right at the time."

He added, "I do like a challenge. 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. To go back to the basics of what made Dragon Age appeal to so many people in the first place. 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."

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