Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is now the majority owner of EA, might’ve dealt BioWare its final blow. But now it seems it was a miracle that the company EA didn’t run the beloved studio into the ground even earlier.

In a recent interview with ex-BioWare producer Mark Darrah for Eldorado.gg, we learned about the many tribulations EA forced the studio through to release Dragon Age: Veilguard.

Darrah explained that EA decided to push BioWare into restructuring the already in-development Veilguard into a live-service game, then re-restructuring it into a more normal Dragon Age experience before release, without ever awarding the devs the time required to get rid of the live-service mechanics still rotting the game from its core.

Most of Veilguard’s infamous elements, like the overly simple dialogue, the lack of drama between the team, and the more action-oriented gameplay, are all leftovers from the Dragon Age that only EA ever wanted to make, the one that Darrah and the team tried to fix many…