Insider Gaming speculates that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will be released this year.

The first in-engine trailer for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf™ full reveal summer 2024. Enter Thedas, a vibrant land of rugged wilderness, treacherous labyrinths, and glittering cities – steeped in savage combat and secret magics. Now, its fate teeters on a knife's edge.

Gamerant posted an opinion piece on the possibility that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will be moving away from the Warrior, Mage, and Rogue classes of previous games. This was prompted by rumours of a God of War style system.

Highlights

• Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will supposedly have a shift to action combat instead of the previous hybrid system, which may be a significant departure from the gameplay of its predecessor.
• There are rumors of a possible faction-based class system or even the removal of classes altogether in Dreadwolf, which many fans believe would be a mistake.
• The skill tree prototype shared by BioWare suggests a different approach to character abilities, potentially sacrificing the series' identity and the importance of team dynamics in gameplay.

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Dragon Age's Classes and Origins

One specific fan theory goes that all Warriors will be Grey Wardens, all Rogues Antivan Crows, and all Mages Tevinters. However, this feels like a pretty massive step backward. Dragon Age: Origins features six backgrounds based on their race and class. Inquisition technically has six, though they were criticized for being too limited due to forcing dwarf players to be Carta members and lacking a city elf option. Dreadwolf only having three character backstories tied to class would strike many fans as unnecessary railroading.

It also doesn’t make much sense with the lore. The entire point of Dragon Age’s Grey Wardens is people from all walks of life dedicating themselves to fighting the Darkspawn. They have never been exclusively Warriors, with Rogue and Mage Wardens appearing in all three games.

Doing away with classes entirely would also be a mistake, but that may be where the game is heading. Those who have seen the game compared its combat to the God of War reboot. If this is accurate, it’s unclear if Dragon Age’s rigidly defined classes would even work with Dreadwolf’s more hack-and-slash gameplay. BioWare might have decided it doesn't, doing away with strict classes altogether.

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Wccftech reports that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will not released this year:

Dragon Age 4: Dreadwolf Will Not Release Before April 2024

Dragon Age 4: Dreadwolf has been in the works for quite some time, and rumors suggested the game could release worldwide later this year. Unfortunately, it seems like the wait for the next entry in the series by BioWare will be a little longer, as the game will not release before April 2024.

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Thanks Couchpotato!

RockPaperShotgun reports on the trailer for Netflix animated series Dragon Age: Absolution which is set in Tevinter like Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.

We’ve finally got a proper look at the upcoming fantasy animated series Dragon Age: Absolution, heading to Netflix on December 9th, thanks to a new trailer. The series is made up of six half-hour episodes following Miriam, an elven mercenary, and it’s set in Tevinter. That’s where the next Dragon Age game, Dreadwolf, will take place, too. Have a watch of the trailer below. 

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A game update from EA announces that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is now in Alpha.

Hello,

In my last blog, back in February, I talked about the next Dragon Age™ game entering the production phase. Well, we’ve come a very long way since then, and the team is incredibly happy to announce a huge step forward in the development of the game you now know as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf™: We have just completed our Alpha milestone!

Up to this point, we’ve been working hard on the various parts of the game, but it’s not until the Alpha milestone that a game all comes together. Now, for the first time, we can experience the entire game, from the opening scenes of the first mission to the very end. We can see, hear, feel, and play everything as a cohesive experience.

NOW WHAT?

Of course, the game is not finished by any means, but Alpha is one of the most important game development milestones for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we can now turn our sights toward bringing the visual fidelity to its final form and iterating on gameplay features. The big question now is, “Where do we focus our efforts?” To answer that, we solicit feedback from a number of sources, including our Community Council members who each have unique perspectives and experiences, our quality verification team, and extensive internal playtesting. Gathering feedback from multiple sources gives us the greatest insight on where we need to spend more time improving the experience.

Additionally, we can now evaluate the game's pacing, how relationships evolve over time, and the player’s progression, as well as narrative cohesion—essentially how the story comes together. We can take the story we’ve written and see if we’re expressing it well through the characters, dialogue, cinematics, and ultimately, the player’s journey. Now that we have the ability to do a complete playthrough, we can iterate and polish on the things that matter most to our fans.

Hitting Alpha was the culmination of so much effort from the entire team and we used this milestone as an opportunity to come together and celebrate. We held a hybrid-style event with people onsite while others joined remotely and the team showcased their work to everyone at BioWare. We even took some time to do something fun and non-work related—a virtual escape room where we had to work together to help someone on camera find their way out. It was a really great time, and no matter where our devs are, it's important to share these types of moments together.

START TO FINISH

Now that we’re finally able to experience the entire game, for me, my favorite part is the characters. Whether followers, allies, or villains, they’re woven into the game in ways that take a concept that’s always been a part of the Dragon Age DNA—stories about people—and push it further than ever before. The characters help contextualize the world and the stakes, and I can’t wait until we’re able to start really discussing them in depth.

It’s also exciting to finally be able to bring our fans to parts of the world that we’ve previously hinted at, but never been able to fully explore—like the city of Minrathous, the capital of the Tevinter Empire. We’ve talked about Minrathous in previous games, and now you’ll finally be able to visit! It’s a city built on and fuelled by magic, and the ways in which that has come through in its visual identity, and what that looks like in comparison to previous cities we’ve visited in Dragon Age, are pretty spectacular.

As I mentioned earlier, the Alpha milestone is an extremely important one for us, but there’s more work to be done. We also want to continue being transparent with you, our community, and keep you up to date on what we’re crafting. Hopefully you’ve been enjoying our development updates on Dreadwolf this year as we’ll be looking to share more in the future.

IN CLOSING

Of course, Dreadwolf isn’t the only thing happening here at BioWare™! We have a team hard at work envisioning what the future holds for a new single-player Mass Effect™ game. And we look forward to celebrating our community on N7 Day next month. The SWTOR team also continues to work on their next update, so keep an eye on SWTOR.com and their social media accounts for any and all details on the coming game update.

It’s an incredible time at BioWare! We have so many cool things to show you in the future. Until then, thanks for being part of our community. We couldn’t do this without you.

Stay well,

Gary McKay

General Manager

Our Next Adventure — Dragon Age: Dreadwolf

Our next game now has an official name. We know you’ve anxiously awaited new details, and today we’re excited to reveal the official title of the next adventure across the lands of Thedas - Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.

Who is the Dread Wolf?

Solas, the Dread Wolf. Some say he might be an ancient elven god, but some say not. Others say a betrayer of his people…or a savior who now seeks to rescue them at the cost of your world. His motives are inscrutable and his methods sometimes questionable, earning him a reputation as something of a trickster deity—a player of dark and dangerous games.

PC Gamer reports, that the executive producer of Dragon Age 4 - Christian Dailey - has left Bioware:

Dragon Age 4 executive producer has left BioWare

Christian Dailey took over as executive producer in 2020, after the departure of Mark Darrah.

BioWare says development of the next Dragon Age game is coming along well, but has also lost a significant leadership figure. Christian Dailey, who took over as executive producer following the departure of Mark Darrah in December 2020, has left the studio.

[...]

Thanks for the info, Henriquejr!

ScreenRant reports that BioWare has released two short stories, and speculates on a future announcement.

Dragon Age Day Teases New Game News & Unveils Two Short Stories

In celebration of Dragon Age Day 2021, series developer Bioware expands the franchise's world while teasing announcements about its next installment.

In honor of this year's Dragon Age Day, creator BioWare released two original short stories and teased some upcoming news about Dragon Age 4. The annual fan celebration of the fantasy role-playing series is held on December 4, with BioWare officially joining in on the festivities in 2019. With the franchise's last installment launching back in 2014, many fans are eager for updates on Dragon Age 4's development.

[...]

In honor of Dragon Age Day 2021, BioWare has released two unique short stories while also hinting at further details about the game. Last year, the developer created four short stories taking place within the massive fantasy world of Dragon Age, and this year two more adventures follow suit. The first tale, Won't Know When, sees two Grey Warden monster hunters resting in-between encounters with the dreaded Darkspawn. The Eternal Flame, meanwhile, tells the tale of two necromancers who must give peace to a wailing spirit. Alongside these world-building tales, the Dragon Age team also teased news about the franchise's next installment will be revealed in 2022.

[...]

Gaming Bolt reports that creative director for Dragon Age 4 Matt Goldman has left BioWare.

Dragon Age 4 Creative Director Leaves BioWare

Another high profile Dragon Age lead leaves BioWare, though the developer insists it is committed to "a high-quality Dragon Age game."

[...]

In an email sent by BioWare to its staff, the developer revealed that Goldman has left the studio, with the two parties “mutually agreeing to part ways”, although there’s no mention of what brought about this departure. Goldman first joined BioWare in 1998. In his first stint at the studio, which lasted over seven years, he worked on Baldur’s Gate and Jade Empire. He rejoined in 2009, following which he worked on every game in the Dragon Age series, and was also involved in the development of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

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IGN France has some concept art from Dragon Age 4.

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Thanks Farflame!

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.

[...]

@PCGamesN Some new concept art for Dragon Age 4 shows a picture of the Grey Wardens.

Dragon Age 4 executive producer Christian Dailey revealed the art on Twitter, tagging creative director Matthew Goldman, and asking “Is this the right amount of pointy and gray?” Goldman responded by saying it’s “All the good stuff.” The image shows a Grey Warden, in full grey and gold regalia, standing in front of the Order’s insignia embossed over some mountains, and a Dragon Age logo up top.

[...]

The Gamer talks about the city of Minrathous and what it could mean for the story of Dragon Age 4.

As well as its huge, sprawling size and impressive defences, Minrathous is a visual spectacle. It features looming towers, magical aura in the air, unimaginable wealth, and even mystical floating buildings. It’s also home to dark alleyways, murder around every corner, and abject poverty. It’s a city of vast contrasts, and Dragon Age 4 needs to explore these in depth.

Contrasts are a big theme across Dragon Age, but rarely are the contrasts as relatable as this. It’s the contrast between the Templars and the Mages, between the dwarves and the surface dwellers, between the Elves and the… slightly different type of Elves that Dragon Age has traditionally been built upon. These lead to interesting stories, but it makes it difficult to step inside the realities of the debate. Parallels can be drawn, but if Minrathous pushes the contrast between rich and poor - especially during a potential Qunari invasion - to the forefront, it could pull us into the heartbeat of the story instead of leaving us sitting on the sidelines, Googling the gameplay benefits of siding with one fictional faction over the other.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

PC Gamer reports that Dragon Age 4 will be set in Tevinter.

We were already pretty sure that Dragon Age 4 will be set in the previously unseen realm of Tevinter. The Inquisitor stabs a knife directly into a map of the Tevinter Imperium at the end of the Dragon Age: Inquisition DLC Trespasser, for one thing, and BioWare pointed a finger in the same direction in 2020 with the release of a collection of short stories called Tevinter Nights.

The writing's been on the wall. But now, it's in an actual licensed book. Any doubts about the location of the new game have been dispelled by the recently released BioWare: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development, a book celebrating the studio's 25th anniversary with art, pictures, commentary, and stories. Tom Phillips of Eurogamer scored himself a copy, and found an official confirmation inside.

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The official teaser trailer for Dragon Age 4.

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The world of Dragon Age needs a new hero – someone who can take on the evil forces threatening Thedas. Get a first look at some of the new locations you’ll discover and the factions fighting by your side in the next chapter of Dragon Age.

Here's the Gamescom 2020 trailer for Dragon Age 4:

Dragon Age 4 Trailer Gamescom 2020

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PC Gamer reports on some new images for Dragon Age 4 which show a graveyard.

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See the tech being utilized in making the next Dragon Age, Battlefield, Need for Speed, and more.

Thanks for checking out IGN's Summer of Gaming! Be sure to stay tuned to SoG as our editorial team shares hands-on demos, gameplay previews (including Xbox Series X gameplay and PS5 gameplay), developer interviews, and publisher presentations- and it’s all happening in live broadcasts! Throughout June IGN will be showcasing new games, 2020 Xbox news, and PS5 news. Summer of Gaming will also feature news about upcoming games, 2020 titles releasing for Playstion 5 and Xbox Series X, and more exclusive gameplay footage.

Thanks Couchpotato!

PC Gamer talk about all the rumours around Dragon Age 4.

Which characters will be in Dragon Age 4? 

Dragon Age has a history of reusing characters, like Varric Tethras who is a companion in both Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition, and cameos like Zevran who shows up in a Dragon Age 2 quest after being a party member in Dragon Age: Origins. It's safe to say that we'll see some familiar faces in Dragon Age 4, but which ones? 

So far BioWare has committed to hanging up its protagonists between Dragon Age games. Each adventure comes with a new hero, though the Grey Warden and Hawke do have the ability to cameo in Dragon Age: Inquisition. It's possible we might then see an appearance of The Inquisitor player character in Dragon Age 4, but they'll likely not be center stage. 

One character we know will play a part in the events of Dragon Age 4 is the Dread Wolf himself. Solas's voice is heard in the first teaser trailer for the game and his relationship to the greater struggles of Thedas means he's not going anywhere any time soon. Similarly, it would be a shock if Flemeth doesn't make a return as well. Flemeth and Solas, both elven legends or gods going by many names, seem to be central to the overarching plot of the series.

[...]

Thanks Couchpotato!

Wccftech reports on an Q2 2020 Earnings Call for EA in which it was stated that Dragon Age 4 would likely not be seen until sometime after March 2022.

...

Dragon Age fans will have to wait even longer, though, as CFO Blake Jorgensen said the next installment is probably coming after fiscal year 2022 (that is to say, after March 2022).

Yeah, I mean, you should assume that there's, you know, Dragon Age out there, and we talked about it publicly that it's in the works and probably comes after fiscal '22. But, you know, we typically don't give multiyear guidance this early in the year or multiyear guidance period. So I don't want to start giving '23 guidance now that I've started a hint on '22. But you should assume it's out there and plans are underway for that product, as well as some other products.

Indeed, BioWare will want to take enough time with Dragon Age 4 to try and erase the misstep of Anthem (and, to a lesser degree, of Mass Effect Andromeda). In early September, General Manager Casey Hudson shared that pre-production is going well, though clearly there is still lots of work to do. If this writer could hazard a guess on the launch window, it'd be early 2023.

PC Gamer thinks that some Dragon Age 4 short stories indicate the setting for the game.

...
The Masked Empire, a novel that Weekes did write, was published 7 months prior to Dragon Age: Inquisition and revolved around several characters that later featured in important Inquisition story quests. It would seem to follow, then, that Tevinter Nights is likely the groundwork for stories or characters that will show up in Dragon Age 4. So far, there's no description of the book on its page other than a brief list of Weekes' credits so we can only guess who the characters on the front may be.

The collection of short stories published by Tor Books is set to come out on March 10th, 2020, according to Amazon.

HitC writes that Dragon Age 4 is screwed because of BioWare and not because of Anthem.

Yes, Dragon Age: Inquisition won Game of the Year in 2014, but – if we’re being frank – that was a terrible year for games thanks to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One having only launched in the previous year’s Fall. The only competition BioWare had to fend off for Game of the Year was Bayonetta 2, Dark Souls II, Hearthstone, and Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor (hardly the most competitive scene).

Mass Effect 3 was released back in 2012, and the quality of BioWare’s games have drastically declined. Inquisition winning Game of the Year says everything about how unremarkable 2014 was for video games, Mass Effect: Andromeda was middling to horrendous in 2017, and Anthem is the most boring, incomplete, and shallow game I have ever had the misfortune of picking up. And these horrid games all share two things in common: terrible stories and characters.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

USGamer reports that a cancelled version of Dragon Age 4 focused on heists.

"You'd play as a group of spies in Tevinter Imperium, a wizard-ruled country on the north end of Dragon Age's main continent, Thedas," a source told the site. "The goal was to focus as much as possible on choice and consequence, with smaller areas and fewer fetch quests than Dragon Age: Inquisition."

One developer said that BioWare wanted to focus on "repeat play" with "areas that changed over time and missions that branched in interesting ways based on your decisions, to the point where you could even get 'non-standard game overs' if you followed certain paths."

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Twinfinite suggests 10 things Dragon Age 4 can do to avoid becoming Mass Effect Andromeda.

Flesh Out Loyalty Quests for Companions

Speaking of companion characters, the Dragon Age series is begging for more fleshed out loyalty missions the player can take part in to gain their party members’ admiration.

Since they were used in Mass Effect 2, BioWare game fans have been eager to see loyalty missions applied to the developer’s fantasy RPG series. Being able to change the character’s outlook on the world, and meaningfully change their role in the rest of the game, is an appealing prospect few would want to pass up.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

A teaser trailer for the next Dragon Age.

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Watch the official Dragon Age Teaser Trailer revealed at the 2018 Game Awards in Los Angeles, CA. I suspect you have questions #TheDreadWolfRises

More: http://x.ea.com/54263.

Hey everyone,

We have been working on a new Dragon Age™ game for quite a while now and I am pleased to finally tease the existence of this project!

While we won’t be sharing any details for now, I can tell you we have been building a new team around a core of Dragon Age veterans, people I’ve worked with on Dragon Age, Jade Empire™, and some of whom I’ve worked with since the Baldur’s Gate days.

While I have been focused on Anthem™, the rest of the team has been hard at work exploring ways to push BioWare’s storytelling to the next level.

I’m so excited to show you more!

Mark Darrah, Executive Producer

 Making players into heroes of their own stories has been my real-life quest since Baldur’s Gate.

Over the years I’ve taken on increasing challenges: building vast living worlds, devising fun party-based combat and illustrating fantastic stories. Now, I’m honored and excited to continue BioWare’s rich legacy of colorful companions, romance and epic choices in my favorite fantasy franchise.

We’ve gathered our strongest team yet and are venturing forth on the most epic quest ever!

Matthew Goldman, Creative Director

@PCGamesN The next Dragon Age game is in progress and will be story and character focused.

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Update, January 25, 2018: BioWare's general manager has offered a teaser about the development of the new Dragon Age game.

Casey Hudson, general manager at Bioware, has tweeted to reveal some new information about the new Dragon Age game. The game's official existence was announced yesterday by executive producer Mark Darrah.

Here's everything we know about Dragon Age 4.

 

Hudson tweeted to say that the studio has already had "lots of feedback" regarding the project, but that "I think you'll be relieved to see what the team is working on," saying that the game will be "story & character focused."

Those are scant details, but Hudson himself acknowledges it's "too early" to say any more. Kotaku recently reported that, post Anthem, Bioware would be incorporating more 'live' elements into the game, but Hudson says that for Dragon Age, this "just means designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story."

[...]

Gamerant reports that Dragon Age 4 is not confirmed but there is a project happening.

Eurogamer chats with the Sunless Sea creator Alexis Kennedy and ask how things are going on Dragon Age 4.

His appointment was notable for a couple of reasons. Sure, it was tacit confirmation the Dragon Age team was beginning to staff up. But Kennedy himself had secured a unique position. BioWare is a Canadian company, headquartered in Edmonton. He is British, based in Greenwich, and has not relocated for the job. BioWare does not often employ remote workers, and almost never remote writers: the people who lay down the earliest brushstrokes of a game's world and its characters during the earliest and most formative of its stages.

All the better for us, though, that we could catch up with Kennedy and see how things were going. It has, to address the elephant in the room, been a trying period for his new employer. BioWare is still licking its wounds from the recent, bruising reaction to Mass Effect Andromeda. The company's next project to release will be its recently-delayed and untested new IP, codenamed Dylan. Meanwhile, Dragon Age is still in its early stages. How was he fitting in?

"It's an unusual arrangement," Kennedy admits, chatting via video call from his London home. As a (very) remote worker, Skype is something of a necessity for him - although with different divisions dotted across North America, it's not unusual for BioWare to communicate with its staff from afar. "It's a multi-studio company spread across Edmonton, Montreal [which developed Mass Effect Andromeda] and Austin [home to Star Wars: The Old Republic]," he continues, "though yes - it doesn't have guest writers, as a rule."

[...]

JDR13 pointed us to Playstation Universe where they think that Dragon Age 4 just might be a thing.

Voice actress Alix Wilton Regan has hinted that BioWare is working on the long-rumored Dragon Age 4 for PS4 and Xbox One.

Regan, who provided the voice for the female Elven inquisitor in the fantasy-RPG series, has posted up a snapshot on Instagram of her back in the recording studio, accompanied by the hashtag ‘elf.' Naturally, this has sparked hope that Dragon Age 4 is in development, although it's worth remembering that this is by no means an official confirmation.