BioWare producer confirms a new Dragon Age game is in the works

By Gabe Gurwin Published January 24, 2018

DRAGON AGE™: INQUISITION Official Trailer – The Hero of Thedas

The Dragon Age series has taken a few years off since the release of the excellent Dragon Age: Inquisition, but BioWare and Electronic Arts haven’t forgotten about the swords-and-sorcery role-playing series, and a new game is in the works.

BioWare executive producer Mark Darrah confirmed work is underway on a new Dragon Age game via Twitter, adding that he is currently working on both that game and the online action-adventure Anthem, which was first shown during EA Play last summer.

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It’s unclear who else is involved in the fourth Dragon Age game’s production. Inquisition‘s creative director Mike Laidlaw left BioWare in October, after also working on the Mass Effect series as well as the cult classic Jade Empire. Back in September, Laidlaw said Dragon Age 4 was “not confirmed,” so it’s possible BioWare has something else in mind for the next game, rather than a simple sequel.

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Inquisition took the franchise into a more open-ended structure, with several enormous environments for players to explore and a story that tied back to previous games in the series. It seemed like a natural evolution for Dragon Age, as opposed to the regression we saw with Mass Effect: Andromeda. The latter franchise has been put on hiatus by Electronic Arts, with much of its development team moving to assist with the publisher’s other projects, instead.

Players’ confidence in BioWare — or Electronic Arts — isn’t especially high at the moment. Aside from a few of its sports titles, 2017 wasn’t kind to the company. Mass Effect: Andromeda released to brutal reviews which criticized everything from the animations to the writing, and Star Wars: Battlefront II made headlines for all the wrong reasons. The game even found Electronic Arts as the subject of investigations both in the United States and abroad, as its loot box system has been compared to gambling.

Still, we’re crossing our fingers for the new Dragon Age. It seems to be the one series EA has a good grasp on, and Inquisition set a great foundation for future games — though we are hoping to actually fight a few more dragons in the next game.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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All Trophies and Achievements in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

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The world of Thedas has a lot of problems by the time your Rook shows up on the scene in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. After creating your character, picking your class, and learning the basic tips and tricks of the game, you will be overwhelmed with content. There are dozens of quests to complete, chests to loot, puzzles to solve, and secrets to uncover. That's all without mentioning the main quest, which will take you dozens of hours on its own.

For completionists out there, you have your work cut out for you. A good way to help track your progress and make sure you're on the right path is to know all the Trophies and Achievements there are so you don't miss anything important. If you're curious about what tasks are required for full completion, here's the full Trophy and Achievement list for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

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Admit it: The Hinterlands are the best part of Dragon Age: Inquisition

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If you, like me, have been spending a decade waiting for the next entry in your favorite franchise, you'll be able to understand my excitement for the new Dragon Age game dropping next week. Ten long years after 2014's Dragon Age: Inquisition offered arguably the best pre-Elden Ring high-fantasy gaming experience in the business, the long-awaited sequel, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, will finally take fans deeper into the heart of Thedas than ever before. The wait has been long and often frustrating -- fans can't hear the names "Joplin" or "Morrison" without shedding a tear for what could've been. However, we soldiered through, mainly by sticking to the good and, if you're anything like me, replaying Inquisition over and over again.

Hardly anyone can deny Dragon Age: Inquisition is a great game; it even won Game of the Year at the 2014 Game Awards. Yet, every time someone talks about it, the conversation goes to how the game's earliest section, focused on the Hinterlands, is tiresome. I'll be the first to admit there are some valid points to these criticisms: the Hinterlands are expansive, to the point of potentially feeling overwhelming. Yet, I cannot bring myself to fault the game for it. In fact, I believe that the Hinterlands are the highlight of Dragon Age: Inquisition, and it wouldn't be an overstatement to say the game actually peaks early with them.
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Dragon Age: Inquisition is set in a medieval-inspired world called Thedas. It's ravaged by a civil war between two factions: the mages and the templars. A conclave organized to negotiate a peace treaty goes awry when an explosion kills the attendees and leaves a hole in the sky, referred to as The Breach, allowing for nightmares and demons to come out and attack. A hero with the ability to close The Breach emerges, leading to the reformation of the Inquisition, an organization separate from other kingdoms and empires focused solely on closing The Breach.

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