It's fair to say that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is one of the most controversial games of recent years. Due to its art style and gameplay changes, many thought BioWare would miss the mark again. While it’s still too early to assess its commercial performance, it at least had a strong debut on PC.
Certainly, the new RPG from Electronic Arts faced criticism from a vocal segment of the online community. Critics targeted the character design and condemned the publisher for offering options that allow players to create diverse and inclusive avatars.
The RPG received negative feedback from players claiming the franchise has gone “woke.” However, former BioWare creative director David Gaider disagrees, stating that the series has always been “progressive”. Nonetheless, the new release has certainly sparked debate.
Will Dragon Age: The Veilguard be a sales flop? That remains unknown, but early Steam data paints an encouraging picture.
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard Is EA’s Best Single-Player Game Launch in History
After a long wait, the fantasy title debuted on consoles and PC on October 31. It received positive feedback from both critics and players, with an average 84 score on Metacritic and mostly positive reviews on Steam. Remarkably, it was on the latter platform where it broke a significant record.
Despite the “woke” controversy, Dragon Age: The Veilguard managed to gather 70,414 concurrent players on its launch day on Valve’s platform. Currently, 67,808 users are connected, and this number will likely increase as the weekend approaches.
To put it in context, Dragon Age: Inquisition, the beloved RPG that won the GOTY award in 2014, had a record of just 4,964 simultaneous players on Steam.
Thus, the controversial Dragon Age: The Veilguard made history. It achieved the best launch for an EA single-player game on Steam, breaking the record of 67,855 concurrent users set by Star Wars Jedi: Survivor in early 2023. The acclaimed Dead Space remake saw a peak of 30,925 simultaneous players.
Currently, the new release holds the top spot on Steam's best-selling games list, surpassing the successful Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. It’s a positive turn for BioWare after the disappointments of Anthem and Mass Effect Andromeda, though it remains to be seen if it performed well commercially on Xbox and PlayStation.
But tell us, have you played the game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is now available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Follow this link to read more related news.
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