Bioware’s next game isn’t coming until at least spring 2018

By Jon Martindale May 10, 2017

bioware game delay dragon age inquisition high ea origin access — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Bioware’s next game isn’t set to arrive until some point in “fiscal year 2019,” which means the earliest it will debut is April next year. That does give the Dragon Age developer a lot of wiggle room though, as the slated time stretches all the way until March 2019.

Even though Bioware only just released Mass Effect Andromeda in March 2017, during an earnings call earlier this year, an executive at Bioware’s parent company, EA, revealed that a new game was in the works and planned for an early-2018 release. However, just a few months on and that launch date has been pushed back by as much as a year.

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“We’re very pleased with the progress of our new action IP from BioWare,” EA CEO, Andrew Wilson said during an earnings call (via Polygon). “The design is stunning. Gameplay mechanics are excellent, and the action will be exhilarating. The game is built around a live service, and through our creative process, we decided to add more to the disruptive new social design for our players. To accommodate that, we are moving the launch date for this project into fiscal year ’19.”

Wilson has previously described the game as being an action-adventure one, though he stressed it wasn’t an RPG. It will however still feature the RPG mechanics which have become so commonplace in many cross-genre titles, like leveling and other forms of character progression.

What the game will actually be about though is anyone’s guess. We’re told it’s part of an entirely new universe that Bioware has been working on since 2012, so it should be well fleshed out. However, there are hints of unique online components which could be why the game is seeing the delay it now faces.

Whatever the reason, Bioware is clearly keen to not rush the project and it’s certainly good to see that EA is on board with that. If there’s one aspect of AAA games that players have become tired of in recent years, it’s buggy releases.

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Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…

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