Dragon Age has no co-op, multiplayer

By Robert Purchese Published 1 April, 2009

BioWare plans "ton" of DLC, though.

BioWare doctor-bosses Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka have "no plans" to incorporate co-op or multiplayer into Dragon Age: Origins.

"This is a single-player game, and we chose to make it so that we really invest you as the character going through the world and make the experience that much more immersive and deep," Doctor Ray told MTV Multiplayer.

"But there is a social space outside the game. We know the world is connected and how important that is, so we've integrated the community and the game together.

"There's a ton of downloadable content planned, and also the user content generation tool is going to release. So user-generated content, at least on PC - we'll explore whether it's feasible on the console systems - will be shared with other players and fans. There's also servicing of your Achievements and what you've done in the game; that'll be true on all the systems," he said.

Dragon Age: Origins was delayed on PC recently so all three versions (PS3, Xbox 360) can launch together this autumn off the back of the same, beefy marketing campaign. This also affords BioWare more time to polish the desktop game, which has met with less slack-jawed admiration than the Canadian story-specialist is used to.

Doctor Greg and Doctor Ray remain optimistic, however, of a traditional role-playing renaissance that will recapture the magic of Baldur's Gate.

"Dragon Age is taking stuff we've done in the past with Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights to a new level, kind of mashing together the best of features," said Doctor Ray. "It's a pretty exciting combination."

But Neverwinter Nights, remember, spawned a significant online community due to robust multiplayer integration.

BioWare is currently working on Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

And, as for the future, Muzyka added: "You'll see more stuff along the vein of Dragon Age: Origins. You'll see more stuff from our MMO team [The Old Republic] and there's stuff we haven't announced yet that's different from all of those."

So Doctor Greg and Doctor Ray are a very successful team. But more successful than Doctor Sloane and his murder-solving medical staff? Really? Are they really?

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • thefinn #1 3 years ago

    This is not news.

    But Neverwinter Nights, remember, spawned a significant online community due to robust multiplayer integration.

    And it spawned another significant online community around user-created modules, many of which weren't geared towards multi-player.

  • Azazel #2 3 years ago

    Screw multiplayer.

    Just make it as good as Baldur's Gate 2 plz.

  • Plewt #3 3 years ago

    NWN was an atrocity and left me being skeptical to each new game they release. It's especially frustrating how Bioware can pretty much put out any crap (NWN/Jade Empire) and still pass through any review because of BG2 and Kotor.

    Anyway, a little dissappointed with no co-op, had hoped to play this with a friend. It was possible in BG but I never tried it so dunno how good it was.

  • etherfiend #4 3 years ago

    Not fussed at all about the lack of multiplayer. It irritates me having to schedule my time around at least one other person just to play a game.

    *slinks back to corner*

  • hiddenranbir #5 3 years ago

    Staop dicking around with GRAPHICS and give me a big meaty 200hour rpg again.

  • DjchunKfunK #6 3 years ago

    Planescape and Icewind Dale were not made by Bioware.

  • Inigo #7 3 years ago

    I agree with thefinn, i've never played any multi player games with NWN. But have played a lot of very good single player mods. There was quite a few high quality professional level ones that i would have payed money for.

    Too many developers feel the need to shoe horn multi player into a game. It ends up being a waste of time or destroying the single player game (see Resistance 2, and RE5)

  • UncleLou #8 3 years ago

    Thank God. I want them to concentrate on a great single-player experience.

  • RickHard #9 3 years ago

    Hope the engine will be more competent than NW2 : kept crashing all the time, totally ruined my experience to the point I gave up playing the game...

  • sneetch #10 3 years ago

    @RickHard

    Yeah, there were some seriously dodgy bits of code in that one. I still remember a bug where my entire party was basically stuck at a crossroads where NPCs were supposed to appear, they didn't, the game couldn't continue and I couldn't progress. I gave up there but went back when they patched it. For a while at least, it was all a bit... samey. It just felt (and looked) too much like NWN for my likes just a standard issue, off-the-shelf RPG with a clunky combat system. I like the look of this one though for some reason.

  • sirtacos #11 3 years ago

    I'm excited about this, and feel no need for multiplayer to be shoehorned into a single-player game.

    ...and to the people who whine about Jade Empire being shit: actually, it's an awesome game with an enthralling over-the-top plot that gives props to martial arts films like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - thereby making it even more enjoyable. Although I found it harder than KotOR to get into at first, once past the first two 'levels' I was completely sucked into it and enjoyed the hell out of every subsequent moment.

  • GamesConnoisseur #12 3 years ago

    Jade was great but not as good as BG or KOTOR.

    Glad as was previously worried that too much attention would be paid to co op/multiplayer side of it so would be too similar to NWN which I did not take to as well as I did for BG.

    So in a whole I think a great news as a clear indication that all the focus is on SP element and autumn cant come quick enough!

  • Cardhu_Anon #13 2 years ago

    We are a gaming family with friends who also like to visit and play. We don't want to just sit around and watch one person play. We want to play together. A strictlly solo game therefore does not wind up getting bought for our home.

    Game Informer magazine ran an article a few months back reporting the results of a gamer poll on cooperative play. The poll results are that fully 52% of the gaming market _want_ some kind of cooperative play.

    So any company that wilfully omits coop modes from their products is deliberately telling half of their market to buzz off. That is hardly a smart marketing strategy. More like "shooting yourself in the foot."