BioWare has confirmed more information on Dragon Age: The Veilguard ahead of the RPG’s hotly anticipated gameplay reveal today, June 11.

As spotted by Dragon Age YouTuber Jackdaw, BioWare posted a number of comments in the chat of the gameplay video on YouTube responding to questions from fans. One comment confirmed The Veilguard will give players six factions to choose from when creating their character, all with “deep roots in Thedas.” Three examples were provided: Antivan Crows, Gray Wardens, and Shadow Dragons.

6 FACTIONS TO CHOOSE FOR OUR PLAYER HERO!!!!! pic.twitter.com/z5cI0wDqYT

— Jackdaw 🐦 (@JackdawYT) June 10, 2024

These examples harken back to previous Dragon Age games, with mention of the Gray Wardens in particular rekindling memories of the much-loved first Dragon Age game, subtitled Origins. In that 2009 RPG, the player character is recruited into the Grey Wardens, an ancient order that fights the Darkspawn. Some fans are now speculating that The Veilguard will let players play through their faction’s backstory, as Origins did to great effect, but this is unconfirmed for now.

Elsewhere, BioWare confirmed players can customize their Inquisitor from the Dragon Age: Inquisition story in the Veilguard character creator, and “make a few key decisions that will impact how The Veilguard begins.” This suggests Dragon Age fans’ Inquisitor will make an appearance in The Veilguard in some capacity.

THE INQUISITOR IS COMING BACK AND WE WILL CREATE THEM AT THE START OF DA:TV!!! 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/1UJKsVRFET

— Jackdaw 🐦 (@JackdawYT) June 10, 2024

And finally, it is confirmed that fan-favorite character Scout Harding is a romance option. This comes as little surprise given Harding is one of seven companions in The Veilguard.

As Nintendo had announced, it has now pulled X/Twitter support from the Switch via a new firmware update.

Nintendo Switch update 18.1.0, out now, discontinues X/Twitter integration, which means a number of previously available social media sharing options are gone. Elsewhere, our old friend “General system stability” has seen improvements “to enhance the user’s experience.”

The removal of X/Twitter integration from the Switch means all three major video game consoles now lack the sharing functionality they launched with, with Sony and Microsoft going first for PlayStation and Xbox in 2023. The decisions to remove support came after Elon Musk’s social media platform began charging more for business use of its API, the interface used by third-party developers to access Twitter data.

Nintendo didn’t give an explicit reason for the removal of support, but big companies like it, Sony, and Microsoft could be charged around $42,000 a month to uphold integration, according to Wired. It notably continued to support Facebook, however, which does not charge for using its API.

At the time Nintendo announced its plan to pull the integration from Switch, X/Twitter itself responded, insisting it was dedicated to enhancing the gaming community’s experience on the social media platform and that it still has a strong relationship with Nintendo.

“The gaming community is one of the largest and most vibrant communities on our platform, and we are dedicated to enhancing and supporting gaming-related features,” X/Twitter said in its own, now-deleted post.

“Our partnership with Nintendo remains strong, and we are working together to ensure a smooth transition for all users. We will continue collaborating with partners to bring new and exciting experiences to our global gaming community.”

X/Twitter’s API changes arrived in March 2023 and Microsoft disabled Xbox integration in May that year. Sony removed X/Twitter integration from PlayStation in November, though like Nintendo, neither company referenced the API changes as a reason for doing so.

Nintendo Switch update 18.1.0 patch notes:

• The following updates were made for the discontinuation of X (formerly Twitter) integration:
  • The option to “Post to Twitter” when sharing from the Album in the Nintendo Switch HOME Menu was removed.
  • The ability to post Super Smash Bros. Ultimate screenshots from the Album in the Nintendo Switch HOME Menu to Smash World in the Nintendo Switch Online smart device app was removed.
  • The option to link X (formerly Twitter) from “Settings” > “User Settings” > “Posting to Social Media” was removed.
• The option to link social media accounts from “My Page” > “Friend Suggestions” was removed.
• General system stability improvements to enhance the user’s experience.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The Coalition is taking fans back to where it all started with Gears of War: E-Day, and that means revisiting the horrors of Emergence Day and the Locust horde.

Brand Director Nicole Fawcette and Creative Director Matt Searcy opened up about the studio’s desire to focus on the “scary” aspects of Gears during an interview with IGN. Searcy says the team wants to “capture a moment in time” and “tell a very intimate story about what happened” to the people in one of Sera’s cities.

“For us, it’s like a what-if story,” he said. “What if the ground opened up and monsters came out? Yeah, it’s set on a fictional, other planet, but there are very human reactions and stories we get to tell. To do that, we need to be able to tell a story that feels like a horror story.”

Searcy continues, explaining that Gears of War: E-Day will still have the heart and sci-fi the series is known for, but it will also focus in on this specific moment in time by telling a story that takes place over only a few days. The decision to lean in more on horror comes from The Coalition’s desire to recapture the feeling of terror many players might remember experiencing when playing through the series.

“We looked back at what people felt like when they played Gears of War or any of the Gears – Gears 4 included,” he said. “But when people tell you what they remember playing, the things that stood out to them, the feelings, a lot of it is about these, kind of dark, almost horror-esque, scary moments.”

Searcy continued: “So we basically took that feeling, that vision that’s in everybody’s head, and we’re like, ‘That’s the game we’re going to build.’ We’re going to build that game with all the skills we’ve learned, with all the technology we’ve built, and sort of go hard at that. So definitely part of the story is about reintroducing the locust to Gears as scary monsters from the ground come up. And then you realize as it goes on, this is not just monsters, there’s an army here and it’s bigger than anybody thinks it is.”

Fawcette elaborated on how new technology is allowing The Coalition to present the Locusts in new, horrifying ways.

“Through Unreal Engine 5, we now can show the locust at that visual fidelity that is believable as scary creatures from the subterranean,” she said. “And so, like you saw in the trailer, we’re really kind of leaning into those horror vibes as fans remember it and as time has moved on. What was scary in 2006 is very different than 2024. There’s sort of that just doubling down on how people remember how they feel about it.”

Why E-Day?

Gears of War: E-Day is detouring away from the storylines of Gears of War 4 and Gears 5, but as The Coalition explained in an Xbox Wire post, they won’t be abandoning that era of the Gears saga forever. Searcy tells us that the studio chose to go back in time for their next Gears of War game not because they were finished with the previous storyline but because revisiting Marcus and Dom’s relationship made sense for the team itself.

“For us, there is a story here, for our studio, of how we found our way to E-Day,” he explained. “It was about, sort of, reflection, and part of it is just the energy that rolls up about, this was the story we wanted to tell at this time. So, it wasn’t really about picking between these things, it was just a snowball of the stuff that was on the table and this is the one we wanted to do right now.”

Fawcette chimed in, saying that when the idea for Gears of War: E-Day came about, it was a feeling of “Hell yeah. We want to make this.”

Searcy continued: “We love those characters, and like I said, it’s really nice to have a franchise where we can tell stories of different places. When we’re at Gears 4 and 5 we tell these stories, and Tactics, that goes at a different time, and all these sorts of things. For us, it is just the one we wanted to work on now is the one that felt right.”

The Coalition revealed Gears of War: E-Day during yesterday’s Xbox Games Showcase. We’ve not seen any gameplay yet, but this first footage promised a return to the series’ roots with a touching moment that saw the return of fan-favorite character, Dom Santiago. It’s been 13 years since fans watched Dom him sacrifice himself for his fellow COG brothers in Gears of War 3, so while Fawcette and Searcy promise a horrific prequel that explores one of humanity’s darkest days, it’s sure to be an emotional journey, too.

Gears of War: E-Day is currently without a release date. For everything else you announced at the Xbox Games Showcase, you can click here.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

Amid multiple leaks and rumors, we had a decent idea of what was going to be at this year’s Xbox Games Showcase with seemingly plenty to get excited about. But when the Showcase finally aired, Microsoft did the near-impossible for any company in a fickle social media-fueled age: they exceeded expectations and drew almost universal acclaim. Eighty-four percent of the 10,000+ voters in my X poll graded it an ‘A’ on the academic scale. Ninety-five percent gave it an ‘A’ or ‘B’.

A home run like this would be welcome at any time, but it’s an especially fortuitous one now for both Xbox fans and, no doubt, Xbox employees alike. Confidence had been shaken in recent months, with dedicated fans rankled by Microsoft’s decision to bring some previously exclusive games to other platforms. Worse, Microsoft joined the tragically long list of gaming and tech companies to lay off thousands of employees early in the year and, more recently, shut down four development studios it acquired as part of a $7.5 billion deal just four years ago. Two of those were household names in core-gaming circles: Arkane Austin, who, their recent Redfall misfire aside, had an incredibly impressive track record; and the one that really stuck in the community’s craw, Tango Gameworks. They were not only Xbox’s lone Japanese developer, but they’d had an unquestionably good run, highlighted by their most recent and arguably best game, Hi-Fi Rush.

While Xbox’s best showcase ever can’t erase the human impact on the laid-off developers nor reignite the creative embers that have been snuffed out at the shut-down studios, it is the best way for fans who remain invested in the Xbox ecosystem to move forward with confidence and excitement for the future of the platform. And my goodness did that top-to-bottom brilliant showcase give me confidence and excitement for Xbox.

Call of Duty debuted on Xbox’s stage for the first time since the Xbox 360 era, with Black Ops 6 already looking like it could be one of the biggest and best releases for the series in a half-decade – since Infinity Ward’s excellent Modern Warfare reboot in 2019. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer could barely contain his excitement on stage in announcing Doom: The Dark Ages, a bold, more melee combat-intensive prequel in id Software’s brilliantly revived and historically iconic first-person shooter franchise.

And speaking of prequels, Xbox President Sarah Bond introduced the “one more thing” game for this Showcase: the long-anticipated new entry in the Gears series, which itself was not a surprise. What shocked everyone, though – which the trailer slowly made more apparent – was that we wouldn’t be picking up Kait’s story in Gears 6, but instead we’ll be going back to Emergence Day and the formation of Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago’s Delta Squad in a Gears of War prequel – complete with a most-welcome (by me, at least) restoration of the “of War” part of the name.

But the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase didn’t just start big with Black Ops 6 and Doom: The Dark Ages and end big with Gears of War: E-Day – it kept cooking for almost the entire runtime. A new gameplay trailer for Fable floored me, as not only was I not expecting to see any more of it after getting our first tiny glimpse at gameplay at last year’s Showcase, but we got to see quite a bit of Playground’s gorgeous new rendition of Albion. The cherry on top was Microsoft committing to a 2025 release window, which means we can already pencil in Doom: The Dark Ages and Fable for next year – my gut says the former will drop in the Spring, and the latter in the Fall.

Oh, but South of Midnight belongs on that 2025 list too! We got a proper gameplay trailer for Compulsion’s first game since joining the Xbox family after it was announced with a cinematic piece last year, and the art style is incredibly beautiful and wholly unique.

Meanwhile, it didn’t get a release year attached to it (meaning, assume 2026 for now), but the game that stole the fantastic show for me was Perfect Dark. The long-gestating reboot of the beloved Nintendo 64 classic (and decently liked Xbox 360 launch title) has reportedly endured a troubled development, but the co-developers at The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics blew me away by showing off a gameplay-packed trailer that showed off gadgets, first-person shooting, and parkour, leaving me optimistic that we might have a slick combination of Mirror’s Edge, Deus Ex, and the original Perfect Dark on our hands.

Even the inevitable mid-show lull that every showcase like this goes through yielded compelling reveals: the ‘90s-set adventure Mixtape feels like it was made for me specifically, Metal Gear Solid: Delta appears to be both a gorgeous and incredibly faithful remake of the classic Metal Gear Solid 3, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle only “disappointed” me with an otherwise A+ story trailer because we didn’t get a more specific release date than “2024.” But it does reaffirm that within six months I’ll be playing the next effort from MachineGames, a studio that has never missed.

In fact, Xbox’s 2024 Games Showcase was so spectacular and packed with huge first-party games that I didn’t even notice that two of their biggest pillars were missing: Halo and Forza. Granted, I wasn’t expecting anything from Halo, as we’re still only 2.5 years past Halo Infinite’s release. But Forza? Surely a new Forza Horizon – arguably Xbox’s most consistently brilliant franchise – is in the works! If you’re Microsoft, you know you’ve had a heck of a showcase when Halo and Forza can stay home and nobody seems to mind.

I suppose there was one rumored thing that ended up not being included: an Xbox handheld. Fortunately, I got a chance to ask Phil Spencer about that directly afterwards, and I’d say he came as close as he could to confirming its existence without formally announcing it.

If this stellar showcase reaffirmed anything for both Microsoft and Xbox fans alike, it’s that a powerful console is great, and Xbox Game Pass offers a nice value option, but a consistent diet of top-shelf games is what matters more than anything else. More of this please, Microsoft.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.