Very soon, the 2021 Game Awards will be upon the game industry. Plenty of well-deserved congratulations will be given, and many games will be revealed. Geoff Keighley has turned The Game Awards into a second E3 to end the year. Even if a spectator’s favorite game does not win, they can still be entertained with news about exciting new titles. Just about the entire industry will be in attendance, whether it be indie developers in The MIX Picks showcase beforehand or the big console manufacturers during the main show. From shooting games to RPGs, there will be an abundance of video game revelry going into 2022.
There are many hopes and rumors regarding the content of the show. It's already known that movies will play a fairly significant role, and the second Sonic the Hedgehog movie will receive its first trailer alongside the possible name reveal of Sonic Frontiers. Square Enix fans are hoping to see more of Final Fantasy 16, but they would gladly take more Forspoken as well. Capcom's future is currently unknown, but the company's fans are eagerly awaiting what it has to offer. However, there may be no future murkier than that of BioWare. It currently has Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age 4 deep in development, but with Mass Effect seemingly a long way off, fans are wondering if Dragon Age 4 will appear at The Game Awards once again.
Why Dragon Age 4 Could Appear at The Game Awards
Dragon Age 4 has been known to be in development for quite some time. It was first announced at the 2018 Game Awards, with another teaser released at the 2020 Game Awards. It does stand to reason that it could appear once again, perhaps even with a release window this time. According to reports from Kotaku, the development of the fourth main entry in the Dragon Age series began in 2015. Even though the project has been rebooted a couple of times since then, one must imagine that something could be shown by now.
What exactly that would be is another matter entirely. Realistically speaking, Dragon Age 4 may target a 2023 release or beyond. Its previous trailers relied heavily on CG and behind-the-scenes footage, but that does not mean that BioWare has nothing to show for itself. Rather, it may be able to present a vertical slice of what the current game looks like. CG will still need to play a large part, but at least some look at gameplay and a slightly clearer plot hook for this entry could be possible. The Game Awards are rife with possibility, and even if Mass Effect 4 is a long way off, that doesn't mean BioWare will be silent until it comes time for that game’s reveal.
Dragon Age 4 Has Reasons to Skip The Game Awards
All that being said, this hope for Dragon Age 4 at The Game Awards is largely predicated on the assumption that it is able to be shown. What the public knows of Dragon Age 4’s development does not paint a hopeful picture. The development of the game supposedly began in 2015 as a smaller, more narrative-focused game set in the Tevinter region of the Dragon Age world. However, problems with Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem lead to staff being pulled off the project. It ended up being canceled altogether, and development restarted on a live service version after several veteran staff members left.
Supposedly, this reboot came in 2018, the same year it was first shown. However, by the 2020 trailer, this approach was supposedly also scrapped. Now, EA and BioWare had decided that Dragon Age would once again simply be a single-player game. This decision was purportedly motivated by Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s success and the cancelation of Anthem’s rework. That would leave only around a year for Dragon Age 4 to adopt the single-player direction once again. Assets for the game have definitely been made, but how much of the gameplay and story have been assembled is another matter entirely. As it stands, BioWare just released a statement on December 4 saying to expect more news next year, so fans shouldn’t hold their breath regarding Dragon Age 4 being at the 2021 Game Awards.
Dragon Age 4 is in development.