According to Bloomberg’s report, EA gave BioWare, the team behind Dragon Age 4, the go-ahead to remove all planned multiplayer and games as service components from the RPG in recent months.This pivot to an entirely single-player experience is reportedly the result of Fallen Order’s success, which sold millions of copies to beat out EA’s expectations, and the failure of Anthem to win back audiences after a rocky launch. Bloomberg reports that sources close to the development of Dragon Age 4 said the game was previously designed to have a “heavy multiplayer component.”
The game’s development began in 2015 and two years later, in the fall of 2017, EA and BioWare reportedly rebooted development to include long-term monetization, the report reads. That reboot and push for monetization are apparently what led to the departure of Mike Laidlaw from BioWare. Dragon Age 4 was then referred to as “Anthem with dragons” by those working on the game.
During this time, some of BioWare’s leaders pushed back against EA and fought to pivot development back to a single-player focus. It sounds like they eventually won the fight for single-player if this new report is anything to go on.
A release date for Dragon Age 4 has not been announced. The next thing to come from BioWare is Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, which is set to release this May. While waiting for that and the eventual return to Thedas, check out this Dragon Age 4 teaser trailer and then read this story about how Tevinter was confirmed to be the main location of the upcoming game.
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
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