Dragon Age 4 is currently in the middle of its production phase, BioWare has revealed today. It wrapped up its planning phase in 2021, with the team now focussing on implementing the "blueprint" of the game.
The news was revealed in a blog post today, in which BioWare seems to suggest that the game is still far away from receiving a release date. It also states that we will receive more news about the game "later this year", which at least means a showing during the E3 season is still on the cards.
The update also gives us the news that there's another change in leadership on the project. Executive producer Christian Dailey is leaving BioWare, having joined in 2018. The leadership going forward will include production director Mac Walters, game director Corrine Busche, director of product development Benoit Houle, and studio general manager Gary McKay.
On top of this, the post sheds some light on how development is faring. While not stating so explicitly, it pretty much confirms reports that Dragon Age is not launching this year, and we'll be lucky to see it in 2023. As the team explains, the first stage in development - concept and pre-production - only wrapped up last year. The devs are now in the middle of the production phase, so not quite ready for alpha and beta.
It's been known for some time that Dragon Age has suffered a troubled development. Dailey adds to the numerous high profile departures from BioWare since Dragon Age: Inquisition launched, after the game was allegedly made under strict crunch conditions. Company veteran Mark Darrah recently labelled these conditions, which bosses called "BioWare magic", as "terrible", and something that should be stamped out.
In any case, this latest attempt to get Dragon Age 4 off the ground seems to be faring better. News has been much more consistent, and there is more transparency than we've seen in recent years.