Cryptic’s Jack Emmert has said that the studio’s recently-announced role-playing game Neverwinter will feature persistent online play, and that content can be tackled either alone or cooperatively.

Speaking with Eurogamer, Emmert said, “You're always online; you're never offline. But you can certainly solo through the content.

“There will be persistent areas you travel to where you might see other players, but nobody's going to hold a gun to your head to play with them. There will be content that is team only, but in those cases, if you want to solo it, you can just hire NPC henchmen.”

The game aspires to be “a co-op Dragon Age with a touch of Oblivion's exploration,” continued Emmert.

“We aspire to that. Ultimately it will be your judgement, but certainly that's what we're aiming for.”

Dragon Age: Origins developer BioWare has also worked on the Neverwinter franchise in the past, creating Neverwinter Nights. Emmert sees Cryptic’s game as a sequel to that title.