The original plans for Dragon Age 4 were going to bet on a multiplayer model very far from what The Veilguard proposes. BioWare reveals why the project was cut short and what they have learned since then.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard finally arrives on October 31 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Although the potential of the game is beyond doubt and It could be one of the titles of 2024the ten years of waiting since Dragon Age: Inquisition have been a path full of obstacles.
Taking more than a decade to release a sequel is never a good sign, but BioWare’s is not a simple story. The sequel to Inquisition was launched in 2014 under the nickname Joplinbut the resources allocated to development were diverted towards Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem, two failures for BioWare.
Now and with the new chapter just around the corner, those responsible for the saga have opened up in an interview for IGN. In it they explain how Dragon Age 4 took the baton from ‘Joplin’ and confirm previous information: It was going to be a multiplayer title.
This is what Dragon Age 4 multiplayer was going to be like
The fourth installment of Dragon Age was going to follow the model of other multiplayer role-playing games: a base of operations, repeatable missions and a global story as a backdrop. This was BioWare’s first obstacle, more accustomed to large-scale narratives and not relegating them to a sketch.
explains it John Epler, creative director: “We wanted to tell a story about Solas. But a single-player game and a multiplayer game have different needs at the story level.”he states in the interview. “And if you add other perspectives to the game, things get much more complicated”.
The arrival of the pandemic meant a change of focus and BioWare was able to return to its original idea: create a Dragon Age for a single player with an elaborate storyas defined by the keys to the saga. Even so, previous work was used in the development of The Veilguard.
Corinne Busche, director of The Veilguard, says that The fundamentals of this new installment and Dragon Age 4 are similarjust as they recover characters and parts of the story of said title. Plus all the time they spent on the failed delivery allowed them to become familiar with the Frostbite graphics engineand thus reach the high visual bar that the new game will have.
Behind the scenes of The Veilguard’s development there are also less pleasant moments. Joplin was frustrated by the imposition of gaming elements as a service that did not fit the proposal, and just when BioWare had psyched itself up to make a multiplayer, the success of Jedi Fallen Order forced to start over with a single player approach.
Luckily all these setbacks are behind us. With each new advancement, Dragon Age: The Veilguard shows more promise, its mechanics have great potential and even sales forecasts advance. an absolute success that will greatly benefit BioWare.
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