It's been a long wait for Dragon Age: The Veilguard — formerly Dragon Age Dreadwolf — to mark the return of BioWare's long-running RPG series, but we're almost there. Set to launch in Fall 2024, The Veilguard is bringing plenty of BioWare heritage forward - despite once being tested as a multiplayer title.
Yep, in a chunky new interview over at Game Informer, we learn that the EA developer tried out multiplayer during the game's pre-production phase, but the team "couldn't return" to its roots if it went down that road. BioWare GM Gary McKay went on to say that "single player RPG is really where we wanted to spend our time" with Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
"We spent a lot of time iterating, experimenting, and innovating on different things. At one point, it was multiplayer – we did a hard look at multiplayer, but we felt we really couldn't return to our roots. And when we asked ourselves, 'What is the game that we want to develop,' we really wanted to get back to our roots, which is amazing storytelling. It's about those unforgettable characters. And it's about having the opportunity to influence the world. And we really felt multiplayer wouldn't do that."
The chat goes on to discuss the tech behind the game, and how BioWare is now much more comfortable with using EA's Frostbite Engine, while the whole article also digs into BioWare's storied history and what it means for them to go back to Dragon Age after a decade away. The full interview is certainly worth a read!
Something else that's also well worth reading is our hands-on preview for The Veilguard from Summer Game Fest. Our video producer Craig went hands-on with the 2024 RPG last month, and his preview has us all at the offices pretty excited for the return of Dragon Age later this year.