Although there’s not too much out yet, we can rest assured that Dragon Age 4 is definitely happening.
So if anyone recalls quite some time ago, around May 2017 to be precise, there was word about a Dragon Age 4 that was coming into development and that’s pretty much where it ended. With whispered drips and drabs being all that’s really kept up the interest for the next installment, we’ve finally gotten a few more crumbs thrown out to reignite the hype of this long-lost treasure.
Although not much, here’s what we know so far…
Release Date
BioWare had reportedly begun work on Dragon Age 4 in around 2015 but that was shut down shortly after when the team repeatedly got reassigned to other projects such as Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem.
Development restarted in around May 2017 and according to predictions and piecing together a couple of sparsely spread commentaries, we are still looking at a lengthy wait likely all the way into 2023 for a release.
“You should assume that there’s Dragon Age out there, we’ve talked about it publicly that it’s in the works – it probably comes after fiscal [year] 2022,” – Blake Jorgensen, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Electronic Arts.
Platforms & Cross-Gen
It’s also been recently leaked out that Dragon Age 4 won’t be cross-gen. In other words, we’ll only be getting the release for new-gen consoles; namely PS5, Xbox Series S & Series X, and obviously PC.
As much as this is to be expected with the new generation of consoles being out, one would expect that they would somewhat cater to those of us who haven’t yet gotten our hands on these newer beast consoles. At the same time, I guess it’s their way of branching out and nudging us all along to make the upgrade.
Gameplay
There isn’t much on the gameplay side of things just yet but we can expect that it would continue with the Baldur’s Gate vibes and we’re likely looking at a single-player campaign with multi-player being optional, whether that choice will be available straight off the bat or only available post-campaign completion, we are yet to find out.
We will also obviously have loads of new things to see, new people, to meet, and new locations to explore throughout Thedas – the continent of the Dragon Age universe.
Dragon Age 4 is also supposedly using Anthems’ coding and although Anthem certainly wasn’t BioWares greatest accomplishment, I’m sure that they took it as a learning curve and will be using that knowledge to their advantage to bring their name back up with a bang through the long-awaited Dragon Age.
“I think Anthem might be the kick in the butt that BioWare leadership needed to see that how you develop games has changed dearly. You can’t just start fresh and fumble your way forward until you find the fun. That doesn’t work anymore.” – Anonymous former BioWare employee in Kotaku’s report.
We’ve also gotten a few minor teasers of the Antivan Crows – also known as the House of Crows – the renowned elite organization of thieves, spies, and assassins of Thedas; as well as Solas, the elven apostate hedge mage, Fade expert, and companion from Dragon Age: Inquisition and a few of the DLCs.
We also know that Alexis Kennedy, founder of Failbetter Games, has been involved in some of the writing for the game. His works are supposedly more than mere background lore but separate from the core storyline and we can expect to get a feel for the strange and unusual with Kennedy’s almost-Lovecraftian style writing. Maybe his share of the work will be more focused around the Fade of Dragon Age 4?
Be sure to keep an eye out as I will be doing a follow-up regarding any updates and a full lowdown on “what we know so far” for Dragon Age 4 as the release draws near.