Yesterday’s BioWare studio upgrade left fans of the studio feeling extremely anxious about Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. BioWare General Manager Gary McKay attempted to guarantee the public that the layoffs of 50 employees would not meaningfully affect the last advancement stretch of the 4th mainline installment in the Dragon Age series, however his words sounded a bit hollow among the neighborhood.
Just a couple of minutes earlier, throughout his Game Mess Morning live stream, Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb shared additional insight from his sources at BioWare/EA on the outlook of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Simply put, the game is now targeting a Summer 2024 launch window, although Grubb thinks
For a while there, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf might have come out this year. In truth, internally at one point the date that they were looking at was next month, September 2023. However internally, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf keeps getting pushed back. They moved the internal expectations to March 2024 a while back. Think what? It’s not coming out then, either. It’s been pushed back once again. It is not coming out till Summer 2024 at the earliest at this point.
This is not them talking publically, this is from my reporting. However if it moves once again, do not be surprised in any way. I believe it’s likely it will be moved back even further. I anticipate this video game to launch probably by the end of next year. However why launch it at the end of next year when you could move it to the last EA fiscal quarter, which ends in March 2025? This thing could keep moving. Once again, Summer 2024 is what they’re looking at the earliest.
How are they completing Dragon Age: Dreadwolf? Guess what, they’re bringing in people from the Mass Effect group, which is being drained pipes a little bit so that more people can come work on Dreadwolf. That naturally means Mass Effect is getting pressed even more down the line, so don’t expect that whenever soon. Many people weren’t expecting it, however push it back even further in your heads.
If Dragon Age: Dreadwolf introduced in late 2024, it would be a complete decade after Dragon Age: Inquisition, released in the latter half of November 2014. BioWare’s hope is definitely to duplicate the success of that video game, which was the studio’s most effective launch ever in systems sold and earned numerous awards, consisting of Game of the Year at the very first model of The Game Awards.
It might be much more important now than it was then, considering that the last 2 games, Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem, lowered BioWare’s once-pristine reputation. The latter video game especially was extensively panned, and its post-launch advancement (which was expected to last ten years) was right away canceled.
Many believe that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will figure out the studio’s future. If it is successful, it might turn a new page for BioWare, but the opposite outcome could mean the developer’s end.
To that end, it is perhaps encouraging that they’ll have a long time to polish it. Dragon Age: Dreadwolf reached its Alpha phase in late October 2022, being playable from starting to end. If Jeff Grubb is right and the video game ends up releasing around November 2024, that would have been two years to polish the end product.