Dragon Age 4 Delayed Internally Following BioWare Restructuring

During a recent talk at GDC 2018, Dragon Age's Creative Director Mike Laidlaw reveals that the fourth installment was delayed due to restructuring within BioWare.

[showtimefolks]

DA:I was nothing but fetch quests so next game could have less content but overall better quality and variety. A lot of great DA:I content was hidden behind so many fetch quests

[Cobra951]

I disagree. I enjoyed DAI almost as much as the original DAO. DA2 was a bit of a mess, though. Shame about that.

[Avengerz43]

Is it sad that it used to be if something had the Bioware brand on it then take my $$$ now. But now I wait for reviews and see how it is before I open my wallet?? The Bioware I used to know with Jade Empire, KoTOR 1&2, ME trilogy an DA 1 are all dead and gone.

[Eiyuuou]

Kotor 2 was made by Obsidian Entertainment though.

I do agree with what you're saying.

[PhantomS42]

ME 2 was their last great game but a very clear indicator of where they were going to go in a future with how much of a departure it was from what they normally make.

[chiefJohn117]

I'm playing through DA origins and it been great. (Minor issues tho) is DA:I good? I keep hearing mix reviews. Isn't bioware owned by ea? I'll try it out with ea access

[_-EDMIX-_]

Dragon Age Inquisition is amazing. Yes Electronic Arts owns BioWare they have for almost 10 years. If it's on EA access I highly recommended it's one of those things where you just have to play for yourself. The year it release it won lots of Game of the Year Awards and rightfully so.

[showtimefolks]

A lot of its it's content is kept locked behind forced fetch quests to open the main story quests

To make the overall length of the game longer they took the easy route of throwing as many side quests as possible and vast majority are fetch quests that make you run all over the map

[PhantomS42]

Stick with Origins. Inquisition doesn't hold a candle to Origins.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Origins is boring though. It's got a good story but in comparison to II and Inquisition it's simply not as good.

[Kyizen]

Gameplay and combat suck but story amd conversations are really good.

[RavageX]

I enjoyed it but it definitely took time for it to become interesting to me. I ended up liking it a lot actually.

[_-EDMIX-_]

That's exactly how I feel it's actually why I don't really waste my time listening to what other people think regarding some games , simply play it yourself because if you end up liking it trust me you're going to regret not playing it previously because of what other people stated.

It's why it's one of the few games I can't really tell someone else if they're going to like or not like or anything like that simply play yourself and come to a conclusion on how you feel about it because I find lots of people like giving opinions about games in this forceful manner as if they know what you're going to end up liking or something.

[Cobra951]

Bucking the trend here: I really liked DAI. Some of the criticisms are valid, but this is still a huge, epic very worthwhile entry in the series. I wouldn't miss it if you're a DA fan.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

It's awesome. A lot better than Origins for sure.

[Prince_TFK]

I hope it got delayed due to the removal of “live service” from the game, but knowing EA, I doubt that’s the case.

[Deeeeznuuuts]

Bioware are a shell of there former self

[gamesR4fun]

Sucks to see such a great company destroyed but in justin's 2018 social justice hell I can't see how they could survive never mind selling out to a corporation that shutters studios for lolz.

[Cobra951]

Yeah, double whammy. Caught in the SJW blight, AND sucked dry by EA. Oi.

[Jaypi03]

Delayed before it was even announced?

[Prince_TFK]

I think they kindda announced it on Twitter and possibly wait for a big E3 reveal.

[Kokyu]

I hear the dearh drums for bioware

[AnubisG]

That is ok. We don't need another politically correct social justice warrior infected abomination.

[Cobra951]

On that, I agree. DAI had some of that garbage, but it was easy to overlook. Now, I fear it would be so front and center that it would ruin the whole game. We can hope not.

[Bleucrunch]

OH man, Dragon Age was the only game from EA that I knew was solid because of the Developers. This does not look good. Dam!!!

[Relientk77]

I just want it to be good, is that too much to ask for?

No microtransactions, no loot boxes, just a frickin good Dragon Age game

[MadLad]

Inquisition was a proper Dragon Age title. Hell, probably the most epic and large of the bunch. From what I can remember, proper single-player content was pushed, more than anything, with that one.

[Psychosious]

Guess that’s SJW movement didn’t payout well. Rofl

[MadLad]

Bioware never played the SJW card. Closest thing is they had a gay writer who happened to write a couple well done gay characters. Hell, Bioware is one of the few developers that actually tackles the subject of race, racism, sexism somewhat maturely, realistically, and grittily at times.

[rainslacker]

Mass Effect 3's gay character was shallow, boring, and after a few scenes with him lamenting his lost love, I didn't want to talk with him anymore. Not because he was gay, but because he was poorly written.

ME:A just seemed to take the open to whatever approach from the entire crew, as you could procreate with almost anyone from any sex. They handled race fine, as it was a non-issue, and I don't think they actually had any specifically gay characters. The one's that whined about their relationships, heterosexual or otherwise, were just as boring and uninteresting as they were in ME3.

Can't really speak to DA, as I've never played them, but if they took the same approach, I wouldn't say they handle it well, because it does seem to just be there for the sake of being progressive. It doesn't feel natural, even if the characters themselves are not unlike people in real life.

I'll take an intersting character over one of any current SJW-talking point denomination any day of the week. I don't care if they are of one of those denominations, so long as they're interesting.

As far as the flirting goes, it's mostly stupid and silly, and about equivalent to what I'd expect to hear from a middle school student. Filled with cringe worthy innuendo, or complete breaks of awkwardness from otherwise confident personalities.

[MadLad]

Inquisition gave me hope for the future of the company. Warning sign, after warning sign since, however. Writing is on the wall, and the ill-effects of EA ownership is afoot.

[stokedAF]

I don’t know why anyone would sign under EA at this point. What were Hennig and Respawn thinking? They are restructuring to try and make their current model work. The thing is it won’t work, ever. They get 200 people on twitter yelling at them about representation and they think that represents their consumer base. Nobody wants to buy their cheap advocacy tactics. For someone to buy their MTs the game has to be good first lol.

[veicht]

I would like to see DA4, but like what seems to be most people here I am not convinced it would be done right. I DID like inquisition BUT while it was a step back in the right direction (bringing back more rpg elements, combat wasn't spammy or as shallow as DA2) it also took steps in the wrong direction (still lacked some of the variety of dialogue and story choices of origins, they generic open world zone design rather than the level design seen in and expected of dragon age, lore direction and weak payout from plot threads started in origins).

I had hoped that it would get them moving back in the right direction, and if you were to look at the last piece of dlc they made for inquisition (trespasser) I had thought it could happen. Tresspasser was brilliant and was more in line with what I expected from a dragon age game. While I remain unconvinced that EA can avoid screwing things up, I still have the faintest of hope (fools hope possibly) that something good can still come out of DA.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age II and Inquisition are there best games.

[MadLad]

So everything after what many find to be their best years (Baldur's Gate/NeverwinterNights/Kotor)?
I mean, I love me some Mass Effect and Dragon Age. 1 and Inquisition were fantastic. Dragon Age 2 was definitely a game that existed.

But you're missing out on so much.

[Perez]

It's been a lot of ups and downs with Bioware in recent years admittedly a lot more downs then ups and Anthem looks good visually but I'm still stunned they couldn't see the quality difference from Andromeda to Anthem but I digress. I want DA4 to be good because after you don't get bogged down in the Hinterlands in DA:I its a fun game for the most part. (still miss proper deathblows from Origins though) Its really hard to judge for me personally until i see which way there going with it so I'll reserve judgement but I really hope the character creator is more robust whatever they use for lighting it never seems to look the same from creator to actual gameplay. (stupid fade green background in character creator)

[DivineAssault]

Yeah well bioware has been FN up lately.. They used to be so damn good too like Rare.. I hope MS doesnt end up like EA and destroy every dev team they do business with.. With gamepass being so cheap, i fear the quality of AAA games will diminish and you get a base game requiring microtransactions for the good stuff. A digital only future will suck..