Bioware teased the latest new entry in their Dragon Age game series at the 2018 Game Awards .This upcoming Dragon Age will be the first Dragon Age game since 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition. According to some reports, the game (code-named “Joplin”) has been under development since 2015 but then was slowed down to focus on other Bioware games namely Anthem and Mass Effect Andromeda. We’ve had no solid gameplay yet but Bioware showed us two teaser trailers, including one behind-the-scenes trailer that showed us the game’s conceptual art. The newly released Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development book game confirmed the game’s setting which is in Tevinter, an uncharted region of Thedas.
Dragon Age 4 Story
The lead writer of the game, Patrick Weekes described Dragon Age’s 4 story, He said:
“For the game we’re working on now, we want to tell the story of, ‘What happens when you don’t have power?’ What happens when the people in charge aren’t willing to address the issues?”
Alexis Kennedy has also been involved in the game’s writing and his story is separate from the main plot but more substantial than background lore which means that we can expect side characters with more dialogues and backstory
The recent Dragon Age Dread Wolf Rises trailer features Solas who could potentially be this title’s main antagonist, so we can expect Dragon Age 4 to pick up directly after the events of Dragon Age Inquisition and its Trespasser DLC.
In the latest Dragon Age teaser trailer released in 2020, the narrator, Varric confirms a new protagonist in Dragon Age 4. He says:
“It’s time for a new hero.” This fresh protagonist will have “no magic hand, no ancient prophecy” which tells us that this new protagonist will be the type of person they’ll never see it coming.
Game Update
On February 23, 2022 Garry McKay posted an update on the game’s development on Bioware’s website. The studio manager told us that the game is in the middle of the production phase. The update also mentioned that an executive producer was leaving the studio. Despite the game hitting deadlines the developer’s morale is high. Bioware is executing on the blueprint of the game which was designed in the pre-production phase. The team is currently “creating amazing environments, deep characters, strong gameplay, impactful writing, and emotional cinematics”. The game lost its creative director Matt Goldman in November and had its development restarted multiple times. The game’s development has shifted from single-player to multiplayer to single-player.
Dragon Age 4 Release Date
There is no current release date for Dragon Age 4. Development on the game began in 2015 but the team was pulled away to work on other projects, the development was then later on resumed in 2017. EA’s financial director, Blake Jorgensen had this to say in the recent EA earnings call:
“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”.
We can expect the game’s release in the next 18 months window. Some sources confirm the game’s release sometime in 2023.
