Really wish they would release a demo of some sorts. This is one of those games I really wanna try before considering buying it. I dont wanna make the same mistake like I did with Andromeda, bought that just because it was Mass Effect and I love the Original Trilogy.
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Laidlaw: Dragon Age 4's dev team was reduced to "a very small skeleton crew” [UP: ominous tweet]
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
The most logical explanation for Weekes' tweet, to me, is that Dragon Age 4's development team is/will be significantly different from Inquisition's, and he wanted to celebrate the latter's anniversary, not that 4 is somehow cancelled. It could be as simple as Mike Laidlaw and David Gaider — two key leaders of Dragon Age — having left.
DA:I sold well for the genre but it was not a massive seller like other top AAA franchises and I think that is at the heart of the friction between Bioware's output and EA's expectations.
Just gonna remind people of Casey Hudson's last tweet on the matter:
P.S. I put stock in elenarie's assurance that everything will be okay, since DICE was allowed to playtest Anthem not so long ago:
P.S. I put stock in elenarie's assurance that everything will be okay, since DICE was allowed to playtest Anthem not so long ago:
This entire situation is confusing to me.
Quick background: I'm pretty young, so growing up and playing DAO is something I'll never forget, because it really opened the door for me in terms of WRPGs. Went 'back in time' and loved Jade Empire. I skipped DA2 and am trying to slug through it right now, and DAI literally helped me out in a bad period of my childhood. I remember getting it for 20% off and playing it on my crappy gaming laptop while some real hard shit went down. This year, I blasted through the entire Mass Effect series, sans Andromeda of course, and fell in love again. They're one of the main reasons why I take video game stories and experiences seriously. Plus, they're a Canadian Studio, so of course I'm a bit prideful.
So needless to say, this series is pretty important for me. The ability for Bioware to continue to make great RPGs is important to me. I guess if they really do go under I'll still have my memories, but with the way that Trespasser ended it'd still be really sad/bad.
I'm hoping that Anthem either does well enough for EA to push development onto a different studio for future updates so Bioware can get back to making amazing RPGs, or that Anthem doesn't do too well and EA realizes that Bioware's talent is in RPGs, let's them develop DA4 bc Andromeda and DAI sold pretty well.
Worst case scenario, if the studio gets shut down, I'd be cool for the old devs to leave and then regroup later under a different name, and either buy the license back or create a spiritual successor, a la Obsidian.
Quick background: I'm pretty young, so growing up and playing DAO is something I'll never forget, because it really opened the door for me in terms of WRPGs. Went 'back in time' and loved Jade Empire. I skipped DA2 and am trying to slug through it right now, and DAI literally helped me out in a bad period of my childhood. I remember getting it for 20% off and playing it on my crappy gaming laptop while some real hard shit went down. This year, I blasted through the entire Mass Effect series, sans Andromeda of course, and fell in love again. They're one of the main reasons why I take video game stories and experiences seriously. Plus, they're a Canadian Studio, so of course I'm a bit prideful.
So needless to say, this series is pretty important for me. The ability for Bioware to continue to make great RPGs is important to me. I guess if they really do go under I'll still have my memories, but with the way that Trespasser ended it'd still be really sad/bad.
I'm hoping that Anthem either does well enough for EA to push development onto a different studio for future updates so Bioware can get back to making amazing RPGs, or that Anthem doesn't do too well and EA realizes that Bioware's talent is in RPGs, let's them develop DA4 bc Andromeda and DAI sold pretty well.
Worst case scenario, if the studio gets shut down, I'd be cool for the old devs to leave and then regroup later under a different name, and either buy the license back or create a spiritual successor, a la Obsidian.
Andromeda was in development hell and diluted the Dragon Age team
Anthem was in development hell and diluted the Dragon Age team even more, even Mark Darrah is there.
Andromeda's failure put extra pressure in BioWare to provide with Anthem.
The timeline must be something like this.
Anthem was in development hell and diluted the Dragon Age team even more, even Mark Darrah is there.
Andromeda's failure put extra pressure in BioWare to provide with Anthem.
The timeline must be something like this.
And for that reason they won't make a demo, it might take more ppl out of the game then get into it
They get free fudge when playtesting Anthem?? That's really the best snack you could have and I'm so jealous!
I really hope whatever needs to happen to make a DA4 does. DAI was fantastic. The only game I've ever beaten/gotten most/all trophies and then repeated it all again on another console. I've never replayed a game in full within a year or two of originally beating it. I didn't replay FF7 until it released on PS4 after I beat it in late 90's. I've still not replayed TLOU. I haven't touched ME2 since I beat it. My favorite games of all time. Something about DAI kept me wanting more. I think maybe 3 months passed in between playthroughs.
I'm rooting for you Bioware.
I'm rooting for you Bioware.
I automatically expect the worse when it comes to EA.
And never had been disappointed till now. ME:A cemented it.
Would had loved to see post Witcher Dragon Age but really, after Witcher the bar is raised so high no way EA would had given the proper time they needed. (even if DA4 is not cancelled, expect the worse)
And never had been disappointed till now. ME:A cemented it.
Would had loved to see post Witcher Dragon Age but really, after Witcher the bar is raised so high no way EA would had given the proper time they needed. (even if DA4 is not cancelled, expect the worse)
It's been known that Dragon Age is in their back burner for a while now, but if the studio head said they're actually making it, people would instantly assume it's in active development. Which would lead to questions and frustration.
It's just cautious wording.
Despite its issues, I really enjoyed Inquisition and the world of Thedas. I was excited to go to Tevinter and possibly learn more about the nature of the Maker (I believe the Tevinter belief is the correct one). If we do not get Dragon Age 4, I will never forgive EA.
Origins was my favourite followed by inquisition and yeah the character interactions in a Bioware game are amazing and one if my favorite aspects to their games.
My only issues with Inquistion was that they tried really hard to chase the open world fad leaving aspects of the game feeling watered down. The other, was Vivienne was the best romance option that wasn't an option lol. C'mon Bioware!
Would be strange to not see it again.
I think Anthem will surprise people and Bioware will continue on with it another project, whatever that will be. But seeing DA on hold wouldn't surprise me even though there doesn't seem to be a reason not to make it.
I know Edmonton is getting their new studio in the new year. However I don't know if that means they want to expand their teams. I guess we will see.
Lol.
I guess, it had good aspects to it. What bothered me was that everything looked the same with the recycled backgrounds and dungeons. Was more streamlined than Inquistion that's for sure.
Sure, plenty of problems with it. But really didn't like the combat in Inquisition. I'd take reused areas over that.
Yeah, man. I never bought that Mass Effect Andromeda DLC either.
>_>
Haha, all joking aside I'm glad you at least liked Solas. He may well be my favorite BioWare character.
The funny thing was even before the ending stinger not to mention Trespasser, Solas was still pretty great.
Yeah, at some point around the 50 hour mark, I was in a situation where the shit with the map points (i forget the jargon) was locking me out of doing cool shit, and i didn't feel like grinding my way back to the fun, so i never returned. It sucks because I was really loving the feel of the gameplay (somewhere between Diablo and God of War), and my character was a fkn boss. Might try replaying in 4K on PC.
Wait I thought Dragon Age Inquisition was a success for Bioware. I could see ME Andromeda being low on sales since it had a bad launch with animation bugs. I never liked the ME games so I just waited for Dragon Age next. And now another ME Scifi game.
Did a search, at least it's launch exceeded their expectations. They should have given Dragon Age another shot, darn you Mass Effect!!!!
"In particular, Dragon Age: Inquisition had by far the most successful launch in BioWare's history, exceeding our expectations. In addition, game sales for last-generation consoles were also much stronger than we had anticipated," said Blake Jorgensen, EA's CFO during the call.
"Outperformance versus our outlook was driven by the record-breaking Dragon Age: Inquisition performance."
- EA Q3 2015 earnings call
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Inquisition was a great success, just modest relative to the numbers of highly successful AAA games of subsequent years, as I understand it.
It was the best selling BioWare game, but BioWare games have never sold gangbusters. Especially compared to something like Skyrim, the eye-popping sales of which were a big influence on Inquisition's switch to open world-type game design.
EA wants Dragon Age to do Skyrim numbers. The same with Mass Effect.
I should note, that if EA actually invested a proepr budget in those titles they could very well reach those numbers. But, they simultaneously don't give it a Skyrim type budget and then also complain that it doesn't do those numbers.
They probably sell decent numbers, although a lot at discount prices. Say, ~5M+ lifetime.
Right, because it's not like Andromeda copies the game structure and design of DA Inquisition, is it? Oh.
Man gaming seems to be on a bad path. Indie games need more attention since they are the ones that will save us from this crash. I don't even care if games looked like FFXII The Zodiac Age on PC (60fps), or Fortnite graphically (it looks good). I wouldn't mind how Fallout looks if it ran smooth as butter with minimal glitches and game ruining bugs. I wish these AAA games toned down what's causing them to spend so much money. Get back to reality since they obviously can't make up for all that detail with such a limited customer pool.
Andromeda isn't really indicative of much, considering its development process, and the fact that it wasn't conceived as a BioWare Edmonton product.
Anthem is seemingly such an enormous departure from BioWare's single-player ethos, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Casey Hudson placated the specific concern that their single-player series would become unrecognizable. He also tweeted about how Dragon Age 4's GaaS model would be post-launch story content.
BioWare.
Hey, look at me.
Literally just remaster the Mass Effect trilogy and sell it as a collection with all DLC included.
You will be drowning in money. Like holy shit, it's right there for the taking.
Hey, look at me.
Literally just remaster the Mass Effect trilogy and sell it as a collection with all DLC included.
You will be drowning in money. Like holy shit, it's right there for the taking.
It kinda doesn't, though. It's just as close to Mass Effect 1 as DAI, if not moreso.
My dream is that they are waiting to package the ME trilogy remaster announcement with an ME4 announcement.
If they are madmen, they will make ME4 a direct continuation of ME3's destroy ending with Shepard was the protag. All they'd have to say is that it's a story about what would happen after Destroy, with Control and Synthesis still being valid choices. Boom done.
I'd buy this shit so hard my wallet would implode and shrivel. I'd buy it now for fuck's sakes.
I just don't have much faith in whatever may come from BioWare with respect to Dragon Age at this point. What I want would basically be a proper sequel to Inquisition that picks up with Tevinter and all that stuff teased by Solas in Trespasser and the end of the base game with Flemeth and so on. Make a more lively open world with less filler junk quests and I'd be totally on board.
My concern at this point is that with big names like Laidlaw and Gaider no longer at BioWare, the prospects of that sort of single player Dragon Age game seem pretty much done. Whatever may come will be some derivation of a GAAS thing. And that's not at all what I want out of a Dragon Age game. So it just seems like you're damned if you do and damned if you don't- as a longtime BioWare fan, I have zero interest in Anthem. So if Anthem bombs, then where does that leave BioWare? Do they abandon GAAS type stuff or double down on it even harder for the future? Or do they pull a BioWare Montreal/ Visceral and get absorbed into EA at large working on some Star Wars project or some other property instead of their own IP? On the other hand, if Anthem does great then you'd think more resources are tied up in Anthem even longer and whatever Mass Effect or Dragon Age thing will be less traditional BioWare and more GAAS like Anthem.
This all just bums me out because I really just want to see where the Dragon Age story goes from here. And it sucks that its likely getting overhauled from whatever they originally had in mind to fit some GAAS model. Just pump out a lower budget Dragon Age Tactics game that pushes the story forward like they had been talking about for a while or maybe an old school Infinity Engine style Dragon Age game. But that won't happen cause EA only wants huge Skyrim numbers on every project.
My concern at this point is that with big names like Laidlaw and Gaider no longer at BioWare, the prospects of that sort of single player Dragon Age game seem pretty much done. Whatever may come will be some derivation of a GAAS thing. And that's not at all what I want out of a Dragon Age game. So it just seems like you're damned if you do and damned if you don't- as a longtime BioWare fan, I have zero interest in Anthem. So if Anthem bombs, then where does that leave BioWare? Do they abandon GAAS type stuff or double down on it even harder for the future? Or do they pull a BioWare Montreal/ Visceral and get absorbed into EA at large working on some Star Wars project or some other property instead of their own IP? On the other hand, if Anthem does great then you'd think more resources are tied up in Anthem even longer and whatever Mass Effect or Dragon Age thing will be less traditional BioWare and more GAAS like Anthem.
This all just bums me out because I really just want to see where the Dragon Age story goes from here. And it sucks that its likely getting overhauled from whatever they originally had in mind to fit some GAAS model. Just pump out a lower budget Dragon Age Tactics game that pushes the story forward like they had been talking about for a while or maybe an old school Infinity Engine style Dragon Age game. But that won't happen cause EA only wants huge Skyrim numbers on every project.
While I doubt the next Dragon Age will be as good as I'd like, I don't have much of a choice. There's way too few real time with pause party rpgs out there these days. I was always puzzled when people would compare Witcher 3 to Dragon Age Inquisition, especially before W3 released on the DAI multiplayer forums. I'd see things like, "when Witcher 3 is out, R.I.P. DAI." I did try the Pillars of Eternity 2 game and it scratch the itch pretty nicely. I have the first Pillars of Eternity now and it seem a bit closer to Baldur's Gate 2 D&D stuff that I really hate (sleep after fights to get abilities back and such). Speaking of, I have Baldure's Gate 2 EE and I really need to force myself to get into that. I have such a hard time getting into old games with such old graphics though, I tried getting into BG2 so many times.
I actually enjoyed 2 more than Inquisition, which felt like a SP MMO, with the only real character interaction being back at Skyhold. Plus endlessly pinging the fucking radar to identify interactables / things you can pick up drove me insane.
This thread makes me sad.
There's just got to be another Dragon Age game.
Wynne didn't die for this!
She died for unrelated reasons.
There's just got to be another Dragon Age game.
Wynne didn't die for this!
She died for unrelated reasons.
Agreed. I tried replaying Inquisition and stopped after clearing the first of what would be many, many camps. For all the crap DA2 gets, the force magic class was a blast to play.