A hot potato: One of the stars of the recent Dragon Age title and several other big video games has spoken out about the negative reaction to Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The actress said the hate came from those people who only wanted to see the game, or developer BioWare, fail.
Alix Wilton Regan played the female Inquisitor in both Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. She also starred in Mass Effect 3, Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty.
Speaking to IGN about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Wilton Regan said she was "absolutely devastated" that the game didn't sell as well as expected and received so much backlash, despite most critics' reviews ranging from quite good to excellent.
The contrast is illustrated on Metacritic, where Veilguard has a critic review score of 82 and a user score of 3.9. Users express similar feelings on Steam, where Veilguard's recent and overall ratings are both mixed.
"I feel absolutely devastated for BioWare as a studio that they got such mixed reactions to the game," Wilton Regan said. "I personally thought it was a really strong game. I thought it was just BioWare being more BioWare."
"I also think a lot of people kind of wanted to see it fail, or wanted to see [BioWare] fail, either because they're just really bad people on the internet – of which there are unfortunately many, as we have discovered."
In January, EA revealed that Veilguard had 1.5 million players, not unit sales, in its first two months – half what the company was expecting. Its launch week sales failed to reach the same levels as two other major RPGs: Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and Dragon's Dogma II.
Some people were put-off Veilguard by what many called a political message that tries too hard – the infamous misgendering apology scene involving the push-ups certainly received a lot of attention. The use of the term "non-binary" in a fantasy setting didn't go down too well, either.
There is a better, more subtle way to include a trans character in your fantasy game that does not involve a performative apology and a lecture using parlance that has no place in a game like this. This is basically self-parody. It's a shame because the game is, imo, still quite… pic.twitter.com/9XXJ2oCdGd
– Erik 'daibo' Kain (@erikkain) October 31, 2024
"People were attacking the game before it was released," Wilton Regan added. "It's ridiculous. How can you judge a game, a book, a film, a TV show before it's actually released? You can't. It's an idiotic stance to take."
BioWare released the final update for Veilguard in January. It has confirmed there won't be any DLC for the game as it is now concentrating fully on the next Mass Effect. Sadly for Dragon Age fans, the poor reception likely means we won't be seeing another entry in the franchise for a very long time – if ever.
One game that has also faced backlash ahead of its release is Naughty Dog's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. The trailer features lead character Jordan A. Mun, who sports what has proven to be a very controversial shaved head. She's played by Tati Gabrielle, who appeared in the Netflix series You, Uncharted, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and more.
The trailer has gained over 200,000 dislikes on YouTube and Naughty Dog has now turned off the comments. Comments are still active on the PlayStation channel, where the trailer has almost 300,000 dislikes.