New Dragon Age is ‘still in early production’, behind-the-scenes video confirms

BioWare has confirmed that the next Dragon Age game is “still in early production”.

The development update was provided in a new behind-the-scenes video released as part of Gamescom Opening Night Live.

“We’re still in early production but we thought it was time to give you the very first look at how BioWare’s passionate team of developers are crafting this very special game,” the studio said.

The video features insight from multiple developers, plus concept art and footage representing the game in development.

“Go behind-the-scenes at BioWare and meet some of the passionate developers creating the next Dragon Age,” reads the official blurb. “Get a glimpse at new environments and characters as the team discusses how they are approaching the development of this epic fantasy RPG.”

Further reading

BioWare ‘making progress’ on Dragon Age 4 but ‘working from home is harder’

Executive producer gives an update on the next entry in the fantasy series

BioWare said in July that work on the next Dragon Age has been complicated by this year’s switch to remote working.

In June EA offered the first look at some of its in-development projects for next-gen consoles. A work-in-progress video was used to tease new fantasy worlds from BioWare, Battlefield 6, and Criterion’s next-gen Need for Speed.

EA said last October that it doesn’t expect to release the next Dragon Age game before its fiscal year 2023, which begins on April 1, 2022.

“You should assume that Dragon Age—it’s out there, we’ve talked about it publicly that it’s in the works—it probably comes after fiscal 22,” EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said.

“But we typically don’t give multi-year guidance this early in the year, or multi-year guidance period,” he added, “so I don’t want to start giving [fiscal] 23 guidance now that I’ve started to hint on 22, but you should assume it’s out there and plans are underway for that product.”

In early 2018, it was reported that BioWare had rebooted Dragon Age 4 and that its replacement would be a “live service” game.

Studio GM Casey Hudson responded to the report on Twitter: “Reading lots of feedback regarding Dragon Age, and I think you’ll be relieved to see what the team is working on,” he wrote.

“Story & character focused. Too early to talk details, but when we talk about ‘live’ it just means designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story.”

EA officially teased the game with a vague trailer at The Game Awards in December 2018. In an accompanying blog post, BioWare said: “We’ve gathered our strongest team yet and are venturing forth on the most epic quest ever.”

Further reading

EA claims its next-gen games will ‘feel different’ and ‘raise expectations’

Studios boss emphasises importance of memory and CPU leaps in new consoles