The Dragon Age series features some of the best role-playing games ever made, especially 2009’s Dragon Age: Origins, which is likely a game many who were playing games at the time remember fondly.
However, since releasing Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2014, Canadian developer BioWare is yet to put out another game in the Dragon Age series, even if it did announce that another entry would be hitting shelves sometime in the future back in 2017.
And maybe BioWare fans even lost faith after the high-profile misses that Mass Effect Andromeda and the later Anthem were, and also the fact that BioWare had originally revealed that the next Dragon Age game would be a multiplayer focused, online game like the failed Anthem was…
Thankfully, though, the project was rebooted and Dragon Age 4 (or whatever the next game in the series ends up being called) will be a single player, story-focused game like its predecessors were.
Also, BioWare revealed in a recent blog post (via VG247) that the next Dragon Age is currently in the production phase, even if it did not reveal a release date for the game though.
“For the next Dragon Age, we are right in the middle of Production, which is a great feeling. Our blueprint was completed last year, so we’re now focused on building out our vision: creating amazing environments, deep characters, strong gameplay, impactful writing, emotional cinematics – and much more”, said BioWare in its blog post.
Which is all fine and dandy, but I would certainly prefer it if the next Dragon Age was more like 2009’s Origins than Dragon Age: Inquisition. The latter game had way too much filler and grinding, mundane side-questing and tedium, even if it was widely considered 2014’s game of the year (perhaps undeservedly so).
And after such a long wait, it’s clear that Dragon Age fans would like the next entry in the series to be special, even if recent happenings at BioWare might have gotten in the way of that. This is because BioWare also revealed in its blog post that the game’s executive producer Christian Dailey had left for greener pastures, something which could impact the game’s development.
Nonetheless, BioWare says that “a strong leadership team of industry and Dragon Age veterans is in place to carry us through Production and beyond”, which is reassuring, even if failures like Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem might have made some lose faith in the developer. Plus, a cinematic trailer seen at the Game Awards 2020 (see below) definitely looked the part, hinting this might be another great entry in the series.
Also, last year’s Mass Effect Legendary Edition might have helped BioWare recover some of the lost trust. Plus, the success of the Mass Effect remasters has prompted publisher Electronic Arts to keep investing in the franchise, as BioWare also revealed in its blog post that the next Mass Effect is still being worked on.
It’s the next Dragon Age, though, what most people will be looking forward to now as it’s slated for release sometime in 2023. And this is certainly a game to look forward to if BioWare is able to get everything right and deliver another great fantasy RPG next year, that’s for sure.