RUMORS ABOUT THE NEXT DRAGON AGE SPARK FEARS IT’LL BE ANOTHER ANTHEM

A new report digs into how the game has changed from its original vision to a ‘live’ service.

A new report from Kotaku on the history and current status of the next Dragon Age game reveals old plans for an ambitious and intriguing RPG, code-named Joplin, that would have prioritised “choice and consequence,” rather than simplistic fetch quests, in a game world smaller than DA:I, but deeper and more reactive. Alas, that vision of the game allegedly fell victim to the ol’ doublewhammy of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem.

In its place, according to the report, is a rebooted game intended to be a better fit with Electronic Arts’ mandate to develop “games as a service,” which evolve — and can be monetised — for years after their initial release. Instead of using the tools and pipelines established for Dragon Age: Inquisition as was originally planned, the rebooted game — code-named Morrison — will be built on Anthem’s codebase, and will feature a “live service component, built for long-term gameplay and revenue”.

It’s not clear how much of the original idea will be inherited by the new game, but the report says that Mike Laidlaw, creative director on the Dragon Age series, left BioWare shortly after the reboot. BioWare general manager Casey Hudson said in 2018 that the game will be “story and character focused,” however, and that describing it as “live” means “designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story.”