They Wanted to See Us Fail: Dragon Age Inquisitor, Alix Wilton Regan, Defends The Veilguard and BioWare Spirit
Alix Wilton Regan, the acclaimed voice behind the Female Inquisitor in Dragon Age: Inquisition and the recent Dragon Age: The Veilguard, has shared her heartfelt response to the intense backlash faced by BioWare’s latest offering. She attributes the “mixed reactions” not to the game’s quality, but to a segment of the audience who, in her view, “wanted to see the game fail, or wanted to see [BioWare] fail.”
Speaking in a new IGN interview where she discussed her celebrated video game roles (including her upcoming part in Microsoft’s Perfect Dark reboot), Wilton Regan expressed her profound disappointment at The Veilguard‘s struggle to connect with a wider audience, despite receiving generally positive reviews from critics.
“I feel absolutely devastated for BioWare as a studio that they got such mixed reactions to the game,” Wilton Regan stated. “I personally thought it was a really strong game. I thought it was just BioWare being more BioWare.”
She didn’t mince words about the source of some criticism: “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.”
Dragon Age: The Veilguard faced significant online “review-bombing” upon its release. Much of the negative sentiment focused on accusations of the game being “woke,” citing the inclusion of a non-binary companion and the player’s option to create a transgender character. On Steam, the game currently holds a ‘Mixed’ player response, with user tags prominently featuring “LGBTQ+” and “politics.”
Wilton Regan condemned these pre-emptive judgments, saying, “People were attacking the game before it was released. 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.”
The commercial reality was stark. In January, publisher EA acknowledged that Dragon Age: The Veilguard had “underperformed” against expectations by approximately 50%. This news came shortly after the game’s director, Corrine Busche, announced her departure from BioWare, and was followed by layoffs affecting other staff who worked on the title. That same month, BioWare signaled the release of its final update for The Veilguard, with no further content planned.
Despite these setbacks and her belief that her Inquisitor character is unlikely to return, Wilton Regan’s faith in the talent at BioWare remains unshaken.
“I only ever want to see the folks from BioWare thrive, because I adore them,” she concluded with warmth. “And whatever they go on to do next I have no doubt their talents will be richly rewarded. We’re really lucky we’ll get more gold from them in the future.”
Looking ahead, a leaner BioWare team is currently focused on developing the next chapter in the Mass Effect saga, Mass Effect 5, which does not yet have a release date.
