The next installment of one of the most celebrated RPGs on the market could be coming before 2024 is out, and one industry insider has made waves by claiming its developers are “pretty confident” in that release window. And a look atDragon Age Dreadwolf’sofficial websiteseems to back up his claims with the promise of a “Full reveal summer 2024.”
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will be the fourth main entry in theDragon Ageseries developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. It’s first game,Dragon Age: Origins, released in 2009 to favorable responses from RPG fans, and the series also includes a carryover system that uses players' data from previous games in the series (which can be imported directly from save files or inputted manually) to help build the backstory of the current game, including who’s alive, who’s dead, who rules the lands, and who loves whom.
Despite the series' popularity and commercial success, the most recent installment in the series,Dragon Age: Inquisition, came out in November 2014, leaving almost a 10-year gap between its release dates. That gap could be cut off, though, if the words of industry insider Jeff Grubb ring true.
Appearing March 1 on hisJeff Grubb’s Game Messlive stream, Grubb claimed, to the best of his knowledge, we will be able to play Dreadwolf before 2024 ends. “It will be released this year, last I heard. That is — and they’re pretty confident about that,” he said. “Doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee. Could slip. But right now, internally, they expect to release it later this year.”
As for when more information will be released regarding Dreadwolf, Grubb claimed in that same broadcast that “I expect it will probably pop up this summer. I don’t know when it will be shown, is the real answer…. Could happen at any time, though.” With the official website now all but confirming the reveal date, it could lend credence to Grubb’s other claim about the official release happening in 2024.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf Is In A Bad Way, But At Least There’s Baldur’s Gate 3
Larian’s game has taken Dragon Age’s crown, and with more trouble at BioWare, it’s hard to see them reclaiming it.
A Legacy Of Epic Fantasy Storytelling
Spoilers For Dragon Age Inquisition Below
Dreadwolf is expected to pick up on a lot of the themes established in Inquisition. The game derives its name from the true identity of one of the Inquisitior’s first companions, Solas, who is revealed in a DLC expansion to have been the mastermind pulling the strings ofthat game’s main villain, Corypheus, and who is the titular Dreadwolf, a powerful old god of the elves.
While information about the upcoming Dreadwolf has been under a pretty tight lock and key so far, the information that has been released by EA has centered around Solas. With that and the game’s title in mind, its very likely to fans of Inquisition will have a lot to unpack when Dreadwolf finally releases, whether it’s this year or not.
I Hope Dragon Age Dreadwolf Takes Cues From Baldur’s Gate 3 For Romances
Dreadwolf will have to step it up after Baldur’s Gate 3 knocked it out of the park.
But Will Dreadwolf Be Any Good?
That being said, there is a lot of concern in the Dragon Age fan community about thequality of the series' games moving forward. Many Bioware employees who formerly worked on the gamesare no longer there. The developer laid off 50 employees in
August. Additionally, lead writer David Gaider, who’s been credited with crafting Dragon Age’s celebrated world, left the company in 2016 and has since formed his own independent studio, Summerfall Studios. Additionally, in December 2020, Dragon Age series Executive Producer Mark Darrah announced he was leaving the company alongside Mass Effect series creator Casey Hudson, leaving a lot of Bioware fans skeptical about the developer’s future.
In addition, a potential switch in playstyle isn’t helping raise support for the game. Rumors of the gamefeaturing hack-and-slash combatsurfaced in February 2023, to the displeasure of a lot of fans of the tried-and-tested Dragon Age format.
As noted above, EA and Bioware have been pretty tight-lipped about Dragon Age: Dreadwolf so far. If the big reveal is coming this summer, as the publisher claims, we’ll probably be able to make a better determination of its quality in just a few months, regardless of when the game releases.
