BioWare Announce Dragon Age 3: Inquisition

BioWare have announced, over a year-ahead, that Dragon Age 3 is coming. This instalment is called Inquisition and it’s coming in ‘late 2013’.

Exec Producer Mark Darrah has written a brief post over at the Dragon Age website, which includes this summary of the state of play:

So here’s what I can confirm for now:

• The next game will be called Dragon Age III: Inquisition.
• We won’t be talking about the story of the game today. Though you can make some guesses from the title.
• This game is being made by a lot of the same team that has been working on Dragon Age since Dragon Age: Origins. It’s composed of both experienced BioWare veterans and talented new developers.
• We are working on a new engine which we believe will allow us to deliver a more expansive world, better visuals, more reactivity to player choices, and more customization. At PAX East, we talked about armor and followers… Yeah, that kind of customization. We’ve started with Frostbite 2 from DICE as a foundation to accomplish this.

There’s much more to talk about, of course, but it will have to wait until it’s ready for the prime time.

So really, the announcement is one of those “Hey, we’re working on the next game” ones, but Dragon Age fans will be pretty excited all the same.

Here’s the full press release:

BIOWARE ANNOUNCES DRAGON AGE 3: INQUISITION

The Return of Dragon Age will be Bigger, Deeper and Powered by Frostbite 2

SYDNEY, Australia– September 18, 2012 – BioWare, a Label of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA), today announced Dragon Age™ 3: Inquisition, the next chapter in the award-winning role-playing game (RPG) franchise, is in development at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Montreal. Coming in late 2013, Dragon Age 3: Inquisition combines the storytelling legacy BioWare is known for, with deep RPG gameplay, all on a brand new RPG game engine underpinned by EA’s critically-acclaimed Frostbite™ 2 technology.

“The Dragon Age team has been working on Dragon Age 3: Inquisition for almost two years now,” said Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Montreal.  “We’ve been poring over player feedback from past games and connecting directly with our fans. They haven’t held back, so we’re not either. With Dragon Age 3: Inquisition, we want to give fans what they’re asking for – a great story with choices that matter, a massive world to explore, deep customization and combat that is both tactical and visceral.”

Added Flynn, “At the same time, we know we need new technology to truly make this vision become fully realized. And we’ve been working with DICE to make Frostbite 2 the foundation for the engine that is going to power Dragon Age 3.”

The Dragon Age franchise has received over 80 awards from critics around the world, and has sold over 8 million copies to date*. Created by BioWare, the property has spawned many novels, an animated film, comic books, collectibles and more since Dragon Age: Originslaunched in 2009.

For more information about Dragon Age 3: Inquisition, including updates from the development team and a letter to the fans from Executive Producer Mark Darrah, please visit the game’s official web site at http://dragonage.com.  Dragon Age fans can also receive updates on Twitter® at http://twitter.com/dragonage, or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/dragonage.

 

So over to you: given some of the bumps in the road DA2 had, are you excited for DA3 and its new engine?