Dragon Age 2 Was Originally Planned to Be “Much Bigger” Before EA Made Other Demands, Former Series Lead Says, Even Though BioWare “Did Not Know How to Make a Small Game”

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It sounds like the development of Dragon Age 2 was a perfect storm of shifting expectations and tight deadlines. David Gaider’s reflections make it clear that what was originally plotted as a sprawling sequel—possibly even incorporating ideas that would later appear in Inquisition—got dramatically scaled down due to EA’s fiscal pressures.

When Gaider says “I had to take out half of them,” he’s talking about entire questlines and story threads being cut wholesale. That’s not just trimming a side mission here and there; it’s the kind of structural pruning that changes pacing, character arcs, and world-building. BioWare had a team accustomed to making large, detailed RPGs, and being forced into a compressed development cycle meant cutting content rather than expanding it.

In short, Dragon Age 2’s smaller size and narrative constraints weren’t purely creative decisions—they were largely dictated by the publisher’s schedule and the team having to adapt mid-production. This helps explain why some fans felt the sequel was more linear and less rich than Origins.