We all know Dragon Age 4 is real and currently under development at BioWare. Since the focus right now is on Anthem, a formal announcement of the next Dragon Age will take some time. Anthem is BioWare’s first live-service multiplayer game. It is in-line with EA’s live-services future; a future where even games like Dragon Age could adapt the live-services model.
The latest piece of Dragon Age 4 news is brought to us by BioWare’s Casey Hudson and Patrick Weekes – a writer for BioWare. Weeks shared a fairly ominous Tweet at the fourth birthday of Dragon Age Inquisition. The Tweet seems to have suggested that the awaited fourth installment is struggling in development.
Happy fourth birthday to #DragonAgeInquisition. Whatever happens in the future, I’m proud to have been part of a team committed to making its players’ lives better.
We have some of the best, geekiest, most passionate fans in the world, and my life is better for knowing you.
If we pair this Tweet with an earlier one from Casey Hudson, the situation becomes clearer.
Some weird stuff going around about how our future games will be influenced by Anthem. Of course, when we do a Dragon Age game it will be designed from the ground up based on what Dragon Age should be. Same with Mass Effect…
Anthem is a specific thing that’s unique from our other IPs in many ways. What carries forward is what we learn about game design, which is a constant evolution.
It seems EA might be pushing for an Anthem inspired live services model for Dragon Age 4 and devs are struggling with it. Casey Hudson’s Tweet is contradicting though. He assures fans that Dragon Age 4 will be created from the ground up and it will be what Dragon Age game should be. So a narrative-driven open world RPG? So what can Dragon Age learn from Anthem? Anthem’s game design, which is being carried to Dragon Age and Mass Effect, is based around a live services model.
Dragon Age 4 release date is years away for sure and developers have plenty of time to evolve its game design. One can only hope its evolution isn’t inspired by a live-service game like Anthem.
The other IP Hudson mention is Mass Effect and while it is great to know that Andromeda’s disaster didn’t kill this IP, it is still bummer to know the next Mass Effect could be a live-service game as well.
