I mean, if Blizzard and Steam can jump on the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre, why the hell shouldn’t EA? Electronic Arts is massive and powerful. Riot was just a budding company before League of Legends made it the most popular game on Earth. In all freakish honesty, I’m quite surprised EA didn’t take a step in this direction earlier; both the free-to-play model and EA excel in microtransactions. This is a match made in heaven.
With all that said, not a whole lot is known about Dawngate. Waystone Games is a splinter group that escaped Visceral before it went under. The little information on the website says:
Dawngate is a new MOBA, built from the ground up to look and feel familiar while offering a whole new way to experience MOBA gameplay. Dawngate empowers you to forge the champions you love for the roles you want in a competitive arena, shaped by ever-evolving, community-driven content and story.
- sign up for beta: help us shape a new moba
- empowered gameplay: a well-balanced, flexible meta
- depth to discover: master a new moba
- evolving world: community-driven story and content
While I admit the very idea of customizing your own champions seems very endearing to me, it also frightens me. So much of the MOBA strategy comes from knowing what your champion and skill level can pull off, this also means knowing your opponents limitations. If everything is wildly new that makes matches far more difficult to prepare for. Also, if there are imbalance issues this could lead to ‘cookie cutter’ skill sets.
With nothing known about this game, it is far too early to speculate exactly what they mean. I’ll admit, Dawngate is now on my radar. Hopefully Waystone Games reveals more in the near future. Until then, why not sign up for the beta?
