Dragon Age: The Veilguard did see Bioware take a "hard look at multiplayer", but eventually decide to stick to what it does best

Bioware has confirmed that it did indeed do a bit of a distracted boyfriend meme when it came to the idea of adding multiplayer elements to the game that's now known as Dragon Age: The Veilguard, but recovered after deciding it wanted to stick to its established strengths.

This comes via an interview about the game from Game Informer, which takes on the tough task of following up the news that Bioware won't tell anyone whether the game features any virtual genitalia, something we're all still dying to know.

Bioware general manager Gary McKay confirmed that, during the pre-prduction stage, the game's developers did experiment with a lot off different stuff. "At one point, it was multiplayer – we did a hard look at multiplayer, he revealed, "but we felt we really couldn't return to our roots."

"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," he continued. "Single-player RPG is really where we wanted to spend our time, so after spending that time in pre-production, really honing in on what the vision of this game is, and [being] afforded the opportunity to deliver on the creative promise of this game, [now] we're really excited about what's coming out."

This looks like it could well confirm a report from Bloomberg back in 2021 that Veilguard originally had a heavy multiplayer focus, which was then scrapped. The report cited the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the, well, lack of success of Anthem as having been a factor in convincing publisher EA that sticking with single player was the best way to go with what was then just known as Dragon Age 4, rather than opting to take the multiplayer route.

Going back to those roots very much looks to be line Bioware's sticking with, though, with former series producer Mark Darrah, who's consulting on Veilguard, having also touched on it when asked about the studio's progression over the years. "The thing that is so amazing about Veilguard is this is the game where we finally said out loud that BioWare's greatest strength is telling stories through characters. If you go all the way back to Baldur's Gate 1, Baldur's Gate 2, these games are telling stories through characters, but there wasn't an intentionality behind that."

"In this game, we're finally putting that intentionality first," he added.

Are you glad Bioware didn't end up sticking with multiplayer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard? Let us know below, and make sure to check out our hands-on preview of the game.