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Dragon Age veteran praises Baldur's Gate 3's early access, says he wouldn't return to BioWare because that 'was never on the cards for us'
Former BioWare general manager Arryn Flynn praises Baldur's Gate 3's early access approach, highlighting its contrast to BioWare's storytelling-focused development, which he finds restrictive. He believes this difference is a key reason why he wouldn't return to the Dragon Age and Mass Effect studio.
Former BioWare general manager Arryn Flynn has praised the way Baldur's Gate 3 handled its early access rollout, explaining that that's partly why he would never return to the Dragon Age and Mass Effect studio.
Arryn Flynn is now the lead on enchanting survival game Nightingale and developer Inflexion's CEO, but that newfound responsibility isn't the only thing keeping him from returning to the storied RPG company. Months ago, Flynn said he absolutely "wouldn't go back" - and now, he's said exactly why.
"I think the frustrations are, in many ways, due to the ramp and pace that the industry is evolving at," Flynn said in an interview with Gamesradar+. "Nightingale as a game has many live updates. We're benifiting hugely from connecting with players through that process, and that was something that was much harder at BioWare. Creating a story-first game means that, well, how do you do that? And evolve the story and not spoil the story? That's a tough problem to solve."
Flynn then says that Baldur's Gate 3 "did an amazing job" when it came to delivering a satisfying story both during its early access tenure and when the game eventually dropped in full years later. "That was just never on the cards for us at BioWare," he said, "at least to my belief."
The veteran RPG developer found it "frustrating" to see other teams "having such success by connecting so deeply with their communities and learning from them, and trying things out with them, and doing stuff," while lamenting the fact that letting the community in "just wasn't something we did at BioWare."
The Nightingale boss is now enjoying that process with his new early access survival game, which recently received a massive Realms Rebuilt update directly targeting problems that fans once had with the game.