According to a recent blog from BioWare, Dragon Age 4 is still in development. Despite work on the game being scrapped twice in pre-production, the devs are apparently in full swing with this latest version. Given the studio’s past issues, the fact that progress is being made on the game is good news, but fans remain understandably skeptical of how the final product will turn out.
Is Dragon Age 4 still in development?
The BioWare blog confirms that Dragon Age 4 is midway through production. It revealed that the devs completed the blueprint for the game last year and that the team is currently working on building out those concepts.
Development on Dragon Age 4 began in 2015. However, EA canceled it in 2018 because it didn’t have any live service design in mind. As a result, much of the work up to that point was scrapped, and the devs restarted the game with a live service in mind. However, when Anthem flopped, and its reworking was canceled in 2021, EA and BioWare refocused the game as single-player only.
So, we can assume that the game has only been in production for about a year in its present form. Obviously, the team likely used material from earlier iterations, but pulling the live service would have fundamentally affected the gameplay and story.
Opinion: This game is BioWare’s last chance to dance
Recently, BioWare scored a much-needed home run with Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. However, aside from the ongoing Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO, the studio hasn’t produced a hit in almost a decade. The studio’s fall from grace has been hard, and with how readily EA closes underperforming branches, BioWare is living on borrowed time.
The blog claims that we’ll be seeing more of the game in the coming year as it gears up for a 2023 launch. However, the company should think twice about releasing the game before it’s ready. Both Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda needed a year or more in the oven when they came out, which was disastrous for the studio. As such, a 2024 window is much more realistic if the devs want it to succeed.
