Rumor: Dragon Age 4 In “Very Good Shape,” Could Launch In 2023 At The Earliest

Ryan Pearson |

Feb 22, 2022

Source Dragon Age 4 (TBA), Electronic Arts

Sources claim that despite past issues, Dragon Age 4 is in “very good shape” and could launch in 2023 at the earliest.

The claim was made by video game journalist Jeff Grubb, a frequent leaker who most recently accurately leaked the recent reveal of Street Fighter 6, during the 34th episode of the Giant Bomb GrubbSnax podcast (transcribed by VGC).

“I’ve heard [Dragon Age 4] is in very good shape,” Grubb said during the show. “Overall, when they look at where they’re supposed to be at [in the development cycle], they are hitting their milestones and where they’re supposed to be, and the game is on schedule.”

Grubb also speculated that, if all goes smoothly, the long-awaited sequel “is still at least 18 months out from today,” and thus could release “not early 2023, maybe late 2023, maybe. That seems to be the earliest you can begin to expect it”

In addition, Grubb claimed that BioWare had no plans to give the Dragon Age trilogy a ‘Legendary Edition’ remaster like they did with the Mass Effect trilogy.

A factor in this passing on a Dragon Age remastered edition was that while Mass Effect formed one complete story, the sword-and-sorcery series weren’t as directly linked.

Grubb also explained that since the Dragon Age games were built in a different engine from the sci-fi series, it would require a substantial amount of work to update them for modern systems.

The trouble for Dragon Age 4 began even before it was publicly announced, beginning in 2016 when team members were shifted to help fix Mass Effect: Andromeda before its disastrous launch. The title was then cancelled in 2017 in order to allocate team members to work on Anthem.

Jason Schreier later reported under Kotaku that Dragon Age 4’s development was rebooted in October 2017 due to issues including BioWare having taken on too many projects at once and a battle between EA’s financial goals and the studio’s design philosophies, particularly regarding ongoing monetezation plans.

These alleged problems resulted in the departure of several major BioWare staff, including Dragon Age Senior Creative Director Matt Goldman, BioWare General Manager Casey Hudson, Dragon Age Producer Mark Darrah, Dragon Age 4 Lead Producer Fernando Melo, and Anthem Lead Producer Ben Irving.

Eventually, in July 2021, Grubb reported for Venture Beat that “sources familiar with [Dragon Age 4] confirm the game is on track for release in 2023.”

Four months earlier, Schreier reported in February 2021 that Dragon Age 4 would drop its multiplayer elements – which many including PC Gamer, Games Radar, and Game Rant took to mean that the game’s live service elements had been culled – and be a purely single-player game.

Alleged factors in this shift included the success of single-player Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the failure of Anthem.

Announced in 2018, so far we know that Dragon Age 4 is themed around being initially powerless, while those with “power” do nothing to help others. The game will feature the voice talents of Gareth David-Lloyd as Solas, Jee Young Han as Bellara, and Ike Amadi as Davrin.

The game’s previously released concept art and singular teaser trailer have teased the true debut of the Executors, the return of the Grey Wardens, and appearances by the Red Lyrium Idol and Dread Wolf.