BioWare's reputation has soured terribly in recent years. However, after last year's Mass Effect: Legendary Edition and subsequent teases about Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect 4, the studio is slowly regaining the trust of its fans. Unfortunately, neither of these two games are close to being released, but, in a recent update, BioWare did provide some positive news.
According to a recent blog post on its website, Dragon Age 4 is currently "right in the middle of production." Further reading gives context to where exactly Dragon Age 4 is right now, which is the midpoint of the studio's development cycle. BioWare is now focused on "creating amazing environments, deep characters, strong gameplay, impactful writing, emotional cinematics - and much more." After this, BioWare intends to release playable alphas and betas for Dragon Age 4, which the studio describes as where "special come to life."
TLDR; BioWare is hard at work at Dragon Age 4, but it's nowhere close to being released.
If it's any consolation, BioWare did promise to give fans regular updates about Dragon Age 4 "later this year." So, if you're curious to find out more about the fourth Dragon Age game, you'll want to keep an eye out on the studio's social media channels as well as its website. Unfortunately, while the blog post intends to reassure fans of the progress of Dragon Age 4, it's hard not to worry if things are going well for the studio.
Even if you discount BioWare's recent string of unsuccessful releases, the studio has lost a handful of key individuals. In late 2020, BioWare lost Mark Darrah, the executive producer of the Dragon Age games. Meanwhile, a few months later, Jonathan Warner, also left the studio after playing a role in Mass Effect 3 and Anthem. To make matters worse, Darrah blasted BioWare in a very public YouTube video last year, saying that the infamous "BioWare Magic" was nothing but a term that effectively meant unhealthy workplace conditions and delays.
With BioWare also losing Christian Dailey, who took over as the executive producer of Dragon Age 4 following Darrah's departure, things aren't so rosy over at the once-acclaimed studio.
The silver lining here is that a long development period for Dragon Age 4 would help mitigate any talks about BioWare subjecting its employees to constant overtime. Having been in development since 2015, Dragon Age 4 will have had nearly a decade of work put into it by the time that the game is released in late 2023 if the recent reports are to go by.
