Dragon Age: The Veilguard Receives Surprise Weapon Pack Despite Underwhelming Sales

Well, this is a pleasant surprise! PC players of Dragon Age: The Veilguard just got their hands on some free new gear. The "Rook's Weapons Appearance Bundle" dropped out of nowhere on Steam, giving players some fresh ways to customize their characters. What makes this interesting? EA had previously hinted they were pretty much done supporting the game after it didn't sell as well as they hoped.

The free weapon pack showed up on Steam without much announcement and is up for grabs for anyone who owns the game on PC or picks it up before April 9. Want to check out these new "Watchful" weapon skins? Just head to Rook's room in the game. Console players might be feeling left out though – there's no word yet if PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S owners will get these goodies too.

Why is this little update turning heads? BioWare, the developer behind the game, has been through some tough times lately with significant downsizing. According to TheGamer, eagle-eyed Reddit users think these weapons were probably already hiding in the game files, waiting for a future promotion. In other words, BioWare likely didn't have to create anything new – they just unlocked content that was already there.

The timing is pretty interesting too. The weapon pack arrives just as The Veilguard gets a hefty price cut on Steam – you can grab it for £25 now, which is half off the original £50 price tag. Not bad for a game that only launched in October 2024!

So how's The Veilguard been doing sales-wise? It's a bit of a mixed bag. The game started strong on Steam with a peak of 89,418 players jumping in at the same time shortly after launch. That's actually EA's biggest single-player debut on the platform – not too shabby! But when you zoom out, the picture gets a bit cloudier.

EA's earning calls reported that The Veilguard "engaged" about 1.5 million players in its first two months through December 2024. That number includes both folks who bought the game outright and those who played through subscription services like EA Play Pro. The problem? EA was apparently banking on around 3 million units, so they fell short by nearly half of what they were hoping for.

To put things in perspective, Dragon Age: Inquisition – the previous game in the series – sold a whopping 12 million copies during its lifetime.

Back in January, BioWare rolled out its fifth patch and basically said, "Don't expect much new stuff – we're just going to focus on fixing the game-breaking bugs from here on out." Around the same time, several big names from the team announced they were packing up their desks, as staff were either shown the door or shuffled off to other projects like the next Mass Effect game within the company.

Meanwhile, The Veilguard popped up on PlayStation Plus in March 2025, just four months after launch. That's usually a sign that publishers are trying to boost those player numbers through subscription services rather than traditional sales.