Skip to main content

The next Dragon Age will reportedly be single-player only amid other shifts at EA

The next Dragon Age will reportedly be single-player only amid other shifts at EA

/

Planned multiplayer aspects have reportedly been scrapped

Share this story

Image: EA

The next Dragon Age game will no longer have multiplayer aspects, according to a new Bloomberg report. The game, made by EA-owned studio BioWare, had reportedly “been designed with a heavy multiplayer component,” but it has been turned into a single-player game “in recent months.”

However, we still haven’t seen much of the game since it was first announced with a brief teaser trailer in December 2018, and we don’t know what the multiplayer component could have looked like. Even though the game has been in the works for some time — development started in 2015, reports Bloomberg — there’s still no release date for it just yet, meaning it could be a ways off, and things could change. BioWare recently showed fleeting glimpses of the game in August and in December.

The change comes amid other developments at EA

The change comes amid other developments that have apparently led EA to be more willing to embrace a single-player-only Dragon Age. On Wednesday, EA announced that Anthem Next, the planned reboot of BioWare’s live service open-world shooter Anthem, has been canceled (though EA says the game “as it exists today” will continue). And EA’s single-player title Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which launched in November 2019, exceeded sales expectations, according to Bloomberg.

Dragon Age became one of BioWare’s marquee franchises based on its engrossing single-player campaigns, so the news that the next title won’t have multiplayer is likely welcome news for many fans. In a recent interview with IGN, EA’s studios chief Laura Miele said the company has been listening to what players want and is making decisions based on that feedback.

“I asked [EA’s community leaders] to give me their best advice on how we can have a better connection to our players,” Miele said. “The biggest theme was — please listen to us about the content players are asking for, which resulted in us green lighting [the new] Skate, College Football, Command & Conquer and additional content for Battlefront II.”

EA has also canceled a years-in-development game codenamed “Gaia,” according to another Bloomberg report. “Gaia’s development was turbulent and the game went through at least one major reboot,” Bloomberg reported. If you’re curious, you can get a brief look at some early footage of Gaia in this video: