The new role-playing game Dragon Age: The Veilguard is already being hotly debated before its release on Xbox, PS5, and Steam. Now, a larger YouTuber is facing criticism for allegedly spreading pre-release footage from the game – but he claims he knew nothing about it.
This was the situation: The new role-playing game Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be released on October 31, 2024, for PC, PS5, and Xbox. On October 28, the first reviews were published – but leaked material had already surfaced beforehand.
On X, formerly Twitter, a user posted footage from an alleged “friend” who supposedly received review access. This friend is said to be a huge fan of Dragon Age, but he was very disappointed with The Veilguard: the voice acting and directing were terrible, and the gameplay mediocre.
The footage and text were also spread by an account with a different name, which used racist insults in other posts. Both names are now no longer traceable, making it difficult to determine who or what was behind it.
The comments were spread like spam under posts from players discussing the upcoming Dragon Age. They seemed to want to serve a certain narrative: Everyone loves the new Dragon Age, but two opinion leaders say: “Woker than you think”
Observant fans have now discovered the source of the leak, the YouTuber MattyPlays – but he claims he knew nothing about it.
YouTuber exposes himself with his character
This is how the YouTuber was caught: Like many others, MattyPlays published his review on October 28 on YouTube – and it bore a striking resemblance to the comments about the leaks. The YouTuber described himself as a huge fan of BioWare and Dragon Age, but showed disappointment in Veilguard.
MattyPlays criticized that the new role-playing game simply doesn’t feel like Dragon Age. Additionally, the directing of the voice actors was quite poorly executed in some places.
The detail that ultimately exposed MattyPlays as the source of the leaks was his Rook: The YouTuber had designed his character himself and adorned it with striking facial tattoos – which also distinguished the character in the leaked footage.
Some people even believed that MattyPlays might have leaked the footage himself through a secondary account.
YouTuber apologizes: “Damage is done”
This is what he says about it: The YouTuber published a detailed statement on X on October 29. He admitted that the footage indeed came from him and apologized to BioWare and EA, the companies behind The Veilguard. He has already contacted them and plans to meet with them to discuss the situation.
If they or other companies no longer want to work with him, he would understand.
However, MattyPlays explains that it was never his intention for this footage to be made public in advance. He had only sent it to his video editor, who apparently spread it further.
The YouTuber makes it clear that the accounts behind the leaks were in no way a friend of his. The hateful messages from the leaker went against everything he stands for. Furthermore, he would not leak material and then use it in his own review.
However, he admits that it was his mistake to send the material at all. Still, he is disappointed that so many people actually believed that he was behind the comments: “The sad truth is that the damage is done and many people have formed an opinion about me today.”
We at MeinMMO were also able to try out Dragon Age: The Veilguard in advance. Our editor Benedict had similar criticisms as MattyPlays. You can find the editorial’s first impressions here: The latest Dragon Age in review: The Veilguard is the ideal Dragon Age for all who do not know Dragon Age at all
