BioWare promises ‘a lot of thought’ on Dragon Age DRM

Mass Effect developer BioWare has promised to put “a lot of thought” into its copy protection strategy for the PC version of upcoming role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins.

Last year the developer suffered a torrent of abuse from fans after it announced plans to require the PC version of sci-fi RPG Mass Effect to ‘phone home’ every 10 days via an internet connection.

In the face of increased pressure BioWare scrapped the policy, removing the 10-day check in favour of a re-authentication only when players downloaded new game content.

In an interview with VideoGamer.com to be published tomorrow, Dragon Age: Origins lead designer Brent Knowles said that the game’s copy protection was “an issue that everybody is well aware of” but couldn’t confirm what strategy BioWare has planned for the title.

He said: “Obviously it’s an issue that everybody is very well aware of. We haven’t announced any plans but we’re definitely paying attention to what the community is saying and keeping that to help guide that in the future.”

When asked if BioWare had learnt any lessons from the Mass Effect DRM outcry, Knowles replied: “Again I think that’s part of listening to the community. We’ve definitely acknowledged what they have said. Obviously I’m up to my head in Dragon Age work, so I don’t pay maybe as much attention as I should do to the other products but we want to have a real positive reaction to Dragon Age when it comes out and there’s going to be a lot of thought put into what our strategy is going to be.”

You can check out our first-look preview of the hotly anticipated RPG right here. Be sure to check the site tomorrow for the full interview with BioWare’s Brent Knowles.