Dragon Age 4 - No Cross-Gen Release

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VentureBeat reports that there will be no cross-gen release for Dragon Age 4 meaning no PS4 or XBOX One release.

Dragon Age 4 is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, but it will not get versions for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. This isn't too shocking, but it does show that developers like BioWare are ready to leave the last-gen consoles behind. This news comes from the LinkedIn profile for Dragon Age's lead player designer at BioWare (hat tip to Faizan Shaikh). But I've also separately confirmed that EA is planning the game only for the new-gen systems.

Moving on to new hardware seems like the natural order for video game software development, but it's something that many companies are shying away from. BioWare most recently released Mass Effect: Legendary Edition in May. But that collection didn't even get a version native to PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X. Instead, EA and BioWare released it only for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and then used the backward compatibility on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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I don't have high expectations for DA4 based on Bioware's recent history, but not developing it for last-gen consoles can only be a good thing.
 
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I don't have high expectations for DA4 based on Bioware's recent history, but not developing it for last-gen consoles can only be a good thing.

Agreed. Cyberpunk 2077 having a last gen version clearly made that release much more difficult.
 
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Wonder when BioWare will actually show game-play footage. As all we know is that it's set in Tevinter Imperium years after Inquisition. That's about it at this point.

Oh and that it was rebooted twice and might be influenced by Dark Souls.
 
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Wonder when BioWare will actually show game-play footage. As all we know is that it's set in Tevinter Imperium years after Inquisition. That's about it at this point.

Oh and that it was rebooted twice and might be influenced by Dark Souls.

Last we saw from this project was some very mediocre concept art. My expectations are very low.
 
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Last we saw from this project was some very mediocre concept art. My expectations are very low.
Me as well but I'll withhold judgement for this and the next Mass Effect. Only because BioWare is on very thin Ice with EA nowadays, and stopped the online nonsense.

I should thank Anthem for under-performing and forcing them to rethink their future.
 
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I don't have high expectations for DA4 based on Bioware's recent history, but not developing it for last-gen consoles can only be a good thing.

For players, it probably is a good thing. Sort of. I mean for players that already have the next-gen consoles. Or PC players.

But it seems like a not-so-good decision for their bottom line. The potential install-base will be much smaller than if they also included last-gen.

Plus, I imagine this game was started with using both last-gen in mind, but they're probably having issues in optimizing it for last-gen, so I guess this way they can cut a significant chunck of work they would have to do to make it run properly. So that's a plus for them, I guess, in terms of the investment needed to bring it to market.

But regardless, considering DA4 is probably Bioware's last big attempt to have a succesful game release, and still look like they're worth it in EA's eyes, it's probably not good that even if they're wildly succesful, the amount of people they can sell to is very small, compared to what it would be if last-gen were also included.

Oh, I guess I forgot part of Bioware is also already on the next Mass Effect? So I guess they're not done yet. I guess it also depends on how many good people they still have there.
 
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I really hope it's a good PC adaption. I can live with playing it on PS5, but I feel then it will mean the game is less of the Dragon Age that I hope and more of the Dragon Age that it's been becoming after every new installment.
 
I really hope it's a good PC adaption. I can live with playing it on PS5, but I feel then it will mean the game is less of the Dragon Age that I hope and more of the Dragon Age that it's been becoming after every new installment.

Oh, don't worry, I've no doubt it'll have a good few 10/10 critic scores no matter what it turns out like ;)
 
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Always some wise-ass who claims that.:p

I'll admit DA 2 was mediocre but BioWare tried to do something different, and it was rushed. DA:Inquisition despite it's flaws won GOTY, so you cant label that mediocre.:lol:
 
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DA:I was quite good. I liked the story and the challenging dragon fights, they felt truly epic. Though I'll say DA:O was more down my avenue.
 
DA:I was quite good. I liked the story and the challenging dragon fights, they felt truly epic. Though I'll say DA:O was more down my avenue.
Yep no doubt Dragon Age Origins was the best of the three, given it was one of the last games before the EA merger went through. It had a long troubled development as well.

I still remember the PC Gamer Magazine with early screenshots. It was a completely different game. It kinda looked like a 3D Baldur's Gate. They switched engines.

Which If I remember the new engine was called Eclipse.:thinking:
 
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The problem with DA:I was the sheer amount of filler content. The same 5-6 quests appeared in every new zone you went to i.e. camp requistions, astrology etc. The game could of still been epic and delivered a might more focused story. If you are going to do side quests at least make them decent. The other bit that was insane was the sheer amount of respawn. Rather than having mobs appear in waves like they did in DA2 - they made the decision to make them respawn every time you panned the camera in certain areas!!! There were a few other really annoying things which meant I would probably score the game around 60% and I would certainly never want to play it again. It could have been a 75%-80% game without all that nonsense.
 
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The problem with DA:I was the sheer amount of filler content. The same 5-6 quests appeared in every new zone you went to i.e. camp requistions, astrology etc. The game could of still been epic and delivered a might more focused story. If you are going to do side quests at least make them decent. The other bit that was insane was the sheer amount of respawn. Rather than having mobs appear in waves like they did in DA2 - they made the decision to make them respawn every time you panned the camera in certain areas!!! There were a few other really annoying things which meant I would probably score the game around 60% and I would certainly never want to play it again. It could have been a 75%-80% game without all that nonsense.

Indeed. It's as if it was Dragon Age but made by Ubisoft rather than Bioware. It would be interesting to know the correlation between fans of Ubisoft games and fans of Inquisition in terms of positive reactions to it's obviously very flawed (in terms of Bioware design heritage) construction.
 
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The problem with DA:I was the sheer amount of filler content. The same 5-6 quests appeared in every new zone you went to i.e. camp requistions, astrology etc. The game could of still been epic and delivered a might more focused story. If you are going to do side quests at least make them decent. The other bit that was insane was the sheer amount of respawn. Rather than having mobs appear in waves like they did in DA2 - they made the decision to make them respawn every time you panned the camera in certain areas!!! There were a few other really annoying things which meant I would probably score the game around 60% and I would certainly never want to play it again. It could have been a 75%-80% game without all that nonsense.

Mass Effect: Andromeda suffered from some of the same issues. Namely, the generic and repetitive filler content. Unlike DA:I, I managed to finish that one, but I'll never replay it.

I hope the "Bigger is better!" thing was just a phase Bioware was going through when they made those games. Pare the filler quests back and focus on quality content instead of trying to make the game 200 hours long.
 
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