Epic Games To Enter The MOBA Fray With Paragon
Published: Dec 9, 2015 - Last Updated: Jul 13, 2023
Epic Games, the American video game development company that brought you the famous Unreal series and the third-person shooter Gears of War, is expanding into the MOBA genre with its game Paragon.
Announced at the PlayStation Experience in San Francisco last week, the game was introduced as a MOBA with explosive action, direct third-person control, and deep strategic choice.
The game’s setup is similar to other MOBAs like Dota 2 and League of Legends, having five players battle five players on a map with three lanes, a jungle, minions, towers, and heroes.
The most distinctive difference from other names in the MOBA genre is the third-person perspective, which is something that Epic Games’ Executive Producer John Wasilczyk thinks is instrumental in making Paragon a stronger experience.
“There are so many people on the project who love MOBAs,” he said. “They love the gameplay that they provide, the choices, the options, and how each different hero is its own little toy box – kind of a unique game in themselves. But we’re action gamers. It’s what the studio does, and it’s what a lot of people on the team love playing. That was something we really wanted to bring to the MOBA experience with Paragon.”
He added, “A big part of it is taking those moments that you hear about in MOBAs, but the game doesn’t necessarily play that way when it’s just a top-down experience – for us having it on the battlefield is what’s going to make it just a beautiful melding of the action game that brings those moments that you see in MOBA trailers to life.”
MOBA market crowded with popular eSports titles
The competitive gaming environment around MOBA games is already packed with successful names such as Dota 2, League of Legends, and Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm. It will definitely not be easy to compete with these established titles.
These games also have loyal fan bases and huge ongoing eSports events built around their products.
On a similar topic, the release of Gigantic, the third-person action MOBA from developer Motiga, has been pushed back to 2016, the studio announced recently.
The delay of the Xbox One and Windows PC game meant laying off some of Motiga’s staff. The company said the reason for the delay was because of the player response from Gigantic’s multiplayer testing.
“We’ve received lots of valuable feedback throughout our testing phases,” the studio said, “and as we reflect on the things we must accomplish to meet the expectations we have set for ourselves, it is clear that we need to move the launch window for Gigantic into 2016.”
While announcing Paragon, Wasilczyk said, “The best competitive games are built together, by players and developers,” hinting that Epic Games is listening carefully to player feedback, which could also be a turning point for this game.
The game will be released for PlayStation 4 and PC in 2016. Online testing is planned to start in January, followed by paid early access in spring, and open beta in summer.
Since: September 12, 2015
