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Dragon Age: Veilguard releases with over 70k concurrent players on Steam and 'Mixed Reviews'

MrA

Member
Man if people think BioWare is in trouble with those numbers then Atlus must be about to close any day now. Metaphor did similar launch numbers and that game has been in development for almost 8 years. And no, I doubt Metaphor was significantly cheaper to make, it is also a massive RPG made by a studio larger then BioWare.
Studio Zero is just 1 of three Atlus studios, and Atlus has a head count of a bit under 400 for all three studios, BioWare Edmonton alone had 320 employees in 2019
just a quick look at the credits similar pace of names 10 minutes for Metaphor, 30 for Dragon Age, you're lying to yourself if you think Metaphor and Dragon Age's budgets were anywhere near each other
 

Topher

Identifies as young
Games frequently peak on Sundays as well.

Yeah, that's usually the pattern for single player games. Jedi Survivor went from 63k on its first Saturday to 69k on Sunday. I'm guessing 10k bump tomorrow.

What's odd to me is Veilguard is still number two on the Steam top seller list, but that isn't being reflected in player counts. I wonder if "top sellers" doesn't take into account refunds.
 

Chechack

Member
Oh spare me. You started off the discussion by calling me delusional.

The salary progression has moved from obviously over double, then to 5 year old data, and now we’ve progressed to over $50k US average for a comparable company like Capcom. The median salaries for most game developer and programmer positions I can find for the financial juggernaught in salaries known as Edmonton is 40k-80k Canadian.

Of course I don’t disagree benefits are higher in Canada, but the salary gap between Tokyo and Edmonton seems a bit overstated. If BioWare was based out of Los Angeles I wouldn’t have even brought it up, as the salary difference would have been massively lopsided. But then again if BioWare was based out of Los Angeles they would have been closed years ago.
The moment u tried to compare the cost of this game with Metaphor and Atlus your already delusional
 

Mister Wolf

Gold Member
I think you'd have to be pretty foolish to claim that a sub 100+ top player count on Steam for a massive, triple AAA game is anything other than a disappointment. All you have to do is simply compare it to other games of similar scale, and the under performance is quite clear.

The only thing saving Bioware from getting shuttered is they're already working on Mass Effect. If Mass Effect underperforms they are gone.
 

nial

Member
They lost the FIFA license over 2 years ago.
He's talking about EA Sports FC which is still doing gangbusters.
EA is fine, Bioware is the one suffering for disappointing sales in the future. Maybe not studio closure, but layoffs are 100% happening.
 
The only thing saving Bioware from getting shuttered is they're already working on Mass Effect. If Mass Effect underperforms they are gone.
It'll be funny if the reason they decided to announce no DLCs and working on Mass Effect so early is because they wanna avoid getting axed by EA. Like if they were doing DLCs for Veilguard than EA would be like "hmmm this game isn't doing well and they're wasting time doing dlcs for it which isn't going to work either so let's can them." vs "Veilguard isn't doing well so let's can them....oh wait they're already waiting for Mass Effect...fine we'll give them one last chance especially since they're already working on it as we speak."

NFL. Sunday is football day in America.
Damn it! All these special days keeping Veilguard from reaching it's full potential!
 

Kacho

Gold Member
What other games had that sales peak? This is my Concord, but for you guys, for me.
Not a sales peak. It’s the concurrent users peak which gives us insight into how popular a game is. These days a new blockbuster AAA game should be pushing 250-300k CCU at minimum. This likely won’t even crack 100k which is disastrous for what it is.
 
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Kacho

Gold Member
2024 Steam games ranked by peak CCU. Filtered by single player, but some primarily multiplayer games are also tagged as single player.

tE1w39i.png
Men_in_Boxes Men_in_Boxes look at this for reference
 
Looks like DA:V is going to be another ME:A and Anthem in terms of success for Bioware. A 7/10 game with sales that are just good enough to keep the lights on.

The real question is how long will EA keep throwing big money at Bioware when they can't produce big returns? Dragon Age and Mass Effect both have the potential for being massive franchises....in the right hands.

giphy.gif
 
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Mister Wolf

Gold Member
It'll be funny if the reason they decided to announce no DLCs and working on Mass Effect so early is because they wanna avoid getting axed by EA. Like if they were doing DLCs for Veilguard than EA would be like "hmmm this game isn't doing well and they're wasting time doing dlcs for it which isn't going to work either so let's can them." vs "Veilguard isn't doing well so let's can them....oh wait they're already waiting for Mass Effect...fine we'll give them one last chance especially since they're already working on it as we speak."


Damn it! All these special days keeping Veilguard from reaching it's full potential!

Mass Effect is the last hurrah. All hands on deck. It has to succeed...........or else.
 

Raven117

Member
My gawd Reset is absolutely ridiculous.

Convincing themselves that 80k is acceptable for this type of game is absolutely insane. On what fucking planet?

Who knows that the future of the game has or Bioware for that matter, but there is absolutely no doubt that the sales of today are weak.

I think Mass Effect is far from a given at this point. They haven’t shipped a massive hit in 3 games…since 2014…

To not think EA is evaluating whether to pull the plug is delusional.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Not a sales peak. It’s the concurrent users peak which gives us insight into how popular a game is. These days a new blockbuster AAA game should be pushing 250-300k CCU at minimum. This likely won’t even crack 100k which is disastrous for what it is.
girl-evil-smile.gif
 
Not a sales peak. It’s the concurrent users peak which gives us insight into how popular a game is. These days a new blockbuster AAA game should be pushing 250-300k CCU at minimum. This likely won’t even crack 100k which is disastrous for what it is.
Agreed, how can people look at this number and think its good? This is not only a sequel to the highest selling Dragon Age games to date but it also releases on one of the biggest PC platforms day 1 and its highest concurrent player count is a little better then a niche JRPG?

I mean I'm reading some articles about it's player count on Steam compared to the previous game and their using percentages instead of the actual number because it's doesn't sound that impressive. Especially since the game been in development for 10 years.
 
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EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
EA owns FIFA and that will save their flat asses.

Unlimited money

Funny enough, without FIFA EA still banked lol

EA doesn't have the FIFA license

So to those that kept this weird idea that EA was just magically living off of a name....

How on Earth can anyone explain this



https://www.videogameschronicle.com...rd-launch-to-top-us-chart-ahead-of-astro-bot/

So much for living off of that name lol I don't even know why people just thought those that bought FIFA, just looked at the name, didn't open the box and are just mindless zombies or something. They buy cause the teams that put them out do a great job, thus they return each year.


Convincing themselves that 80k is acceptable for this type of game is absolutely insane. On what fucking planet?

What evidence do we have that this IP would do more on Steam? This is the 4th title, its clear the audience understands what it is and I don't really buy it SHOULD be doing more, historically what do we have to go on with this IP to suggest that?
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Funny enough, without FIFA EA still banked lol

EA doesn't have the FIFA license

So to those that kept this weird idea that EA was just magically living off of a name....

How on Earth can anyone explain this



https://www.videogameschronicle.com...rd-launch-to-top-us-chart-ahead-of-astro-bot/

So much for living off of that name lol I don't even know why people just thought those that bought FIFA, just looked at the name, didn't open the box and are just mindless zombies or something. They buy cause the teams that put them out do a great job, thus they return each year.




What evidence do we have that this IP would do more on Steam? This is the 4th title, its clear the audience understands what it is and I don't really buy it SHOULD be doing more, historically what do we have to go on with this IP to suggest that?
Too lazy to google it but its crazy how much money EA could had saved if they dumped the FIFA brand years ago. Hindsight 20/20, but wasnt it something like $250,000,000/yr FIFA fee?
 

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
Too lazy to google it but its crazy how much money EA could had saved if they dumped the FIFA brand years ago. Hindsight 20/20, but wasnt it something like $250,000,000/yr FIFA fee?
yes, I recall it being around that.

I think FIFA got greedy thinking the brand was that strong that they could try to get more and that should be a wake up call for a lot of companies thinking a company really needs to life off of their licensing.

It should be a mutual thing, only reason EA would have ever had to do their own thing is FIFA trying to get more, now I don't think EA will ever go back to the FIFA name
 

Raven117

Member
Funny enough, without FIFA EA still banked lol

EA doesn't have the FIFA license

So to those that kept this weird idea that EA was just magically living off of a name....

How on Earth can anyone explain this



https://www.videogameschronicle.com...rd-launch-to-top-us-chart-ahead-of-astro-bot/

So much for living off of that name lol I don't even know why people just thought those that bought FIFA, just looked at the name, didn't open the box and are just mindless zombies or something. They buy cause the teams that put them out do a great job, thus they return each year.




What evidence do we have that this IP would do more on Steam? This is the 4th title, its clear the audience understands what it is and I don't really buy it SHOULD be doing more, historically what do we have to go on with this IP to suggest that?
(1) the series was more PC focused. But really (2) the last one sold 12 million copies. (3) much smaller AA developers have had higher counts.

On no planet did EA think…”well guys, let’s have a more modest Dragon Age after a decade, and two reboots.”

Hard and fast evidence? Of course we don’t know. Standard business practice and common sense dictates a very educated guess.

Now, does something happen in the long run? Maybe. But you cannot sit there and tell me that you think an EA executive is sitting in their office thinking “man, sure glad we hit Metaphor Refantazio numbers.”
 

Kotaro

Member
Not a sales peak. It’s the concurrent users peak which gives us insight into how popular a game is. These days a new blockbuster AAA game should be pushing 250-300k CCU at minimum. This likely won’t even crack 100k which is disastrous for what it is.

Agree. Peak CCU correlates to game success.

Peak CCU of recent RPG to give you some perspectives

1. Elden Ring = 953K --> massive success
2. Baldurs Gate 3 = 857K --> massive success
3. Dragon's Dogma 2 = 290K --> meeting expectation for AAA RPG made in Japan
4. Granblue Fantasy = 114K --> meeting expectation for AA RPG made in Japan
5. Hades 2 = 105K --> meeting expectation for AA Western RPG
6. Metaphor = 85K --> meeting expectation for AA RPG made in Japan

Veilguard, AAA Western made RPG, will end up between 5 and 6. There's no way EA making their money back on this game
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
Veilguard, AAA Western made RPG, will end up between 5 and 6. There's no way EA making their money back on this game
Is it really that surprising? I have yet to see an example of chasing the “modern audience” or trying to greatly expand the player base worked. From Software games are an antithesis to this - they stay the same, yet each entry gets more popular, aka you have new players joining.

Veilguard was clearly made to appeal to Fortnite kids, but I never saw a single case where that actually worked, does someone know about it? Writing has been an afterthought at BioWare for some time now, but it seems with this game they finally just dropped the pretence and decided to ignore it whatsoever, going directly against what made their games popular.

So let’s see: stop doing what you are good at, start doing what you don’t know how to do. How is that a viable strategy? It’s the same story as Arkane that had experience with immersive sims and someone decided to just have them develop a GAAS. We all know how Redfall ended. Dragon Age is not a new IP so probably it will still cruise on the brand name alone, but I don’t see a scenario where a new game will be made.
 

Ozzie666

Member
I think steam ccu players will top out at under 85K.

It is a win for chuds. 🇨🇳 :lollipop_trophy:
I'm not sure sure it's a win, just a reminder that the cancer that has infested gaming and the people responsible are still there pulling the strings.
This is a pretty beloved franchise, Bioware is a legendary company, Mass Effect deserves better. It's amazing how easily companies throw away their repuation, for what exactly? I honestly don't know anymore, because the profits aren't there, the audience isn't there.
Soon they won't be there, and all gamers lose.
 
The thing is, it would be interesting to see how much of their development costs were offset by grants.

I have no idea how Canada operates, but in the EU, there are massive pools of grants available for projects meeting certain DEI and sustainability goals. To the point where some studios and projects can get 40-75% of the costs back from grants alone. Obviously it wouldn’t cover that much on a project of this scale, but I’d still be curious to know.
 
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Zathalus

Member
The moment u tried to compare the cost of this game with Metaphor and Atlus your already delusional
Metaphor was in development for almost 8 years. Not a small team that stopped and started preproduction over the years, but it had a brand new team created specifically for it. Even in Tokyo development costs for a game that long add up. Persona 5 was estimated to have a budget of ~$40-$50 million and that was on full production for 5 years.

The budget for BioWares most recent single player game before this was Andromeda for $70 million (as reported by the Edmonton Journal and included marketing). Dragon Age only started full production in 2021, which is a smaller production time that Andromeda had.
 
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Dragon Age only started full production in 2021, which is a smaller production time that Andromeda had.
Nah mate, DA:V started full production just 6 months ago and Metaphor was being made since 2008, my uncle who works at Atlus told me. Stop being delusional and look at the credits scenes, you will know which game cost how much. Also, unlike DA:V (and like SH2), I would not be shocked to see a lopsided PS5 vs PC sales ratio for Metaphor.
 
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2024 Steam games ranked by peak CCU. Filtered by single player, but some primarily multiplayer games are also tagged as single player.

tE1w39i.png
It's quite revealing how a fully fledged 'AAA' sequel only just beat a 4 year old port.

I ended up purchasing Ghost of Tsushima yesterday (after hearing so many good things about the game) and I'm honestly blown away. The presentation, visuals, writing and acting are impeccable. Whilst I've only played the intro mission, I am genuinely looking forward to playing this game over the next few weeks.
 
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Zathalus

Member
Nah mate, DA:V started full production just 6 months ago and Metaphor was being made since 2008, my uncle who works at Atlus told me. Stop being delusional and look at the credits scenes, you will know which game cost how much. Also, unlike DA:V (and like SH2), I would not be shocked to see a lopsided PS5 vs PC sales ratio for Metaphor.

Instead of calling me delusional, do your own research. Metaphor started development at the end of 2016 with a brand-new team created within Atlus to tackle it. Dragon Age started preprod work in 2018 with Bioware as a whole only pivoting to it in 2021 when the disaster known as Anthem was laid to rest.

You're the one bringing up the credits screen, how do those compare then?
 

Hypereides

Gold Member
This isn't bioware anymore, pretty much everyone who made the games you liked moved on. They're just a skin walker carrying it's name and identity, hoping to seduce all the previous body owner's loved ones.
84ff74bedd62f3eb30e3f76d9a8e3353513649a0ce1e21ab00d70827ffe90582_1.jpg


This gives a bit of insight into his thought process on the topic:


Schreier just openly blurted out what he and most "gaming journalists" think/weigh is most important. They aren't actually concerned about the core quality of a game itself.
 

Hypereides

Gold Member
LegendaryDrops just dropped this line which succintly summarises why games are being developed the way they are right now. The line between gamers and AAA developers has been cut (timestamp; 11:33 - 11:38):



Until this gets remediated, we'll continue to see games and fiascos like this happen.
 
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Agree. Peak CCU correlates to game success.

Peak CCU of recent RPG to give you some perspectives

1. Elden Ring = 953K --> massive success
2. Baldurs Gate 3 = 857K --> massive success
3. Dragon's Dogma 2 = 290K --> meeting expectation for AAA RPG made in Japan
4. Granblue Fantasy = 114K --> meeting expectation for AA RPG made in Japan
5. Hades 2 = 105K --> meeting expectation for AA Western RPG
6. Metaphor = 85K --> meeting expectation for AA RPG made in Japan

Veilguard, AAA Western made RPG, will end up between 5 and 6. There's no way EA making their money back on this game
Just think if 5 years ago you said the sequel to Dragons Dogma would blow Dragon Age out of the water what people would have said to you…..
 

KungFucius

King Snowflake
Looks like DA:V is going to be another ME:A and Anthem in terms of success for Bioware. A 7/10 game with sales that are just good enough to keep the lights on.

The real question is how long will EA keep throwing big money at Bioware when they can't produce big returns? Dragon Age and Mass Effect both have the potential for being massive franchises....in the right hands.

giphy.gif
Maybe that will be a good thing. If they turn these games into AA games they could be more interesting.
 

PeteBull

Member
Once again GAF is proving its in pockets of Youtubers/Influencers.

Reading OT, it has minimal “controversial” stuff. Just same amount as BG3. It was however paraded front and centre, basically everywhere.

Just because of that, this game is being ridiculed.

Pathetic.
U reap what u saw, wanna push woke agenda- expect ur game to bomb, till devs/pubs will learn this simple truth they will keep losing money, its not us- players who suffer, we all got backlogs of tens if not hundreds of high quality games we can play, on the cheap.
It should be in devs/pubs interest to make game that is appealing to us- their customers, not us to beg them so hopefully they show us mercy and not fuck up our beloved series.

Dont blame customers for not buying faulty low quality product, blame product maker/seller for allowing this kind of product being made and sold to us.
 
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Senua

Gold Member
Once again GAF is proving its in pockets of Youtubers/Influencers.

Reading OT, it has minimal “controversial” stuff. Just same amount as BG3. It was however paraded front and centre, basically everywhere.

Just because of that, this game is being ridiculed.

Pathetic.
It's way more woke than BG3, it has a scene lecturing you about inclusivity and using correct pronouns. You can't make womens tits bigger than a B cup, you can't make them un-muscley and have a decent sized arse. BG3 was absolutely fine and wasn't hamfisted in anyway.
 
It's way more woke than BG3, it has a scene lecturing you about inclusivity and using correct pronouns. You can't make womens tits bigger than a B cup, you can't make them un-muscley and have a decent sized arse. BG3 was absolutely fine and wasn't hamfisted in anyway.
Also consider overall quality of writing.

BG3 has weak to ok writing across the board. Its not ham fisted cause thats what writers managed. A couple of cringe / wince moments. Thats it.

DA Veilguard writers instead built a elaborate scenario. And drew inspiration from life experiences. That did more than a few cringe/wince moments.

But overall intention seems to be the same.
 
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