«Within EA, you’re better off being ‘one game at a time’.»
Mark Darrah has been on a tell-all, recently, speaking with YouTuber MrMattyPlays about the failures and foibles of BioWare in the wake of Dragon Age being likely being dead and gone. Darrah, who was an executive producer, left the studio back in 2020; though has been speaking up on his own YouTube channel recently.
He echoes fellow alumni and Dragon Age creator David Gaider’s words somewhat, claiming that the fantasy series was always «having a lot of difficulty getting the resources that it needed». Gaider had similarly claimed that Mass Effect was EA’s favourite child, though Darrah says the situation’s muddier than that.
The issue, as Darrah puts it, is the fact that BioWare tried to have several irons in the fire at once: «We try to do multiple things at the same time. Even if you look at DICE, basically they’re just doing one thing at a time, and sometimes that does really well, and sometimes it doesn’t do so well.»
Darrah says there was «a lot of cannibalisation» of developers as a result, with talent being shuffled around projects repeatedly—spreading the studio bone-thin.
When it comes to EA having a favourite child, he says: «Did EA like Mass Effect better than Dragon Age? I think they did. Was that the cause of Dragon Age not getting the people it needed? That I’m not as certain about.
