Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: bioware, dragon age, Dragon Age 4, EA, HRL

It's 2018 and Dragon Age 4 is Still Not Officially a Thing – and Won't Be for a While

Published Sun, 01 Apr 2018 13:20:10 -0500

We've all heard that BioWare and EA are working on the next Dragon Age game, but despite comments made by people on the development team, Dragon Age 4 is still not official. Hell, we don't even know if the game will actually be called Dragon Age 4. The fact is, despite numerous comments and even leaks of artwork, the official word on Dragon Age 4 has been nil. And we do know the game has been taken back to the drawing board to make it more of a live-service game, which is the sort of news no proper DA fan wanted to hear.

With the lackluster response to the veritable buffet of disappointments that was Mass Effect: Andromeda and the immense backlash over Star Wars: Battlefront II, of course EA would want to reevaluate the next game in the Dragon Age series — especially with the sales for single-player story-driven games falling by the wayside. Bethesda may be digging in their heels on that fact, but that doesn't mean the live service multiplayer market isn't the most lucrative. And EA needs the money.

They've also been pushing Anthem pretty hard as their next BioWare game, because it's a sci-fi multiplayer shooter which makes it an ideal live service game. But the constant lack of information on DA4, the fact that series creative director Mike Laidlaw has left BioWare, and some troubling reports coming out of GDC indicate that we won't be seeing anything about DA4 for quite some time.

In fact, EA might actually be in the process of killing the franchise entirely.

According to HRKGame, who caught up with Laidlaw at GDC, things are not looking good for the studio.

Mike Laidlaw left BioWare last October and has confirmed at the current GDC conference that the Dragon Age 4 team has been reduced to the smallest possible size. In January this year, BioWare has said that they are working hard on the game, which can ultimately be true, but whether it's 5 people working hard or a 100, makes a big difference.

While much of this is rumor and speculation — Laidlaw isn't currently employed by Bioware or EA, and has not been for some time now — if I were a betting sort of woman, I'd not put any money on seeing another Dragon Age before 2020. After all, current game head Mark Darrah is currently heading up BioWare's current main project Anthem and has been almost coy about mentions of DA4. Almost like he's stringing along a very clingy ex-girlfriend.

Things are not looking good, fellow Inquisitors.

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