Dragon Age - The Awakening Expansion Officially Confirmed

Sir Brennus and Danton write in to say that EA has officially confirmed The Awakening, an expansion pack for Dragon Age: Origins. It will be out in stores on March 16 2010 for both PC, Xbox 360 and the PS3. The suggested retail price will be 40 US dollars, the expansion will have 15 hours of gameplay, 5 recruitable companions and some new monsters - and you get to continue the story after the main game.
The expansion is mentioned on Rock Paper Shotgun and in Gamestar.de as well.

In addition, Torias, a moderator on the Bioware forums has made this thread announcing the expansion. A word of warning: Small spoiler for the end game in Dragon Age: Origins may be on these sites.
And Exorzist mentions in this thread that the first screenshots for The Awakening can be found at the GreyWardens fansite.

The full press release from EA is below:

BioWare Announces First Official Expansion Pack to the Critically Acclaimed Dragon Age: Origins"Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening" to Take Fans to the Land of Amaranthine With New Party Members, Spells, Abilities and More in March 2010 EDMONTON, Alberta, Jan 05, 2010

(BUSINESS WIRE — Leading video game developer BioWare(TM), a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS), announced today Dragon Age(TM): Origins - Awakening, the first official expansion pack to Dragon Age: Origins, the recent recipient of Spike TV's Best RPG and PC Game of 2009, IGN's Best RPG of 2009 and CNN.com's Best RPG of 2009. Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening will be available for the Xbox 360(R) videogame and entertainment system, the PlayStation(R)3 computer entertainment system and PC on March 16, 2010.

Designed and written by the same team that brought you Dragon Age: Origins, the Awakening expansion pack offers a brand new area of the world to explore known as Amaranthine, featuring an epic story that will allow players to unravel the secrets of the darkspawn - and their true motivations! Players will face a range of horrific and terrifying creatures including an evolved, intelligent breed of darkspawn and other menacing creatures such as the Inferno Golem and Spectral Dragon. Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening provides exciting new ways for players to customize their heroes and party, including the ability to re-spec their character attributes, allowing even greater customization and replayability. Featuring an increased level cap, new spells, abilities, specializations and items, plus five all-new party members, players can continue their adventures from Dragon Age: Origins, or begin with a brand new character.

"Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening shows BioWare's commitment to our fans by delivering new story-driven experiences which enrich the dark heroic fantasy universe our fans have come to know and love," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group, EA, and Co-Founder, BioWare. "The vibrant worldwide community of Dragon Age fans will relish uncovering the secret motivations of the darkspawn, revealing how the darkspawn continue to infest the world despite the defeat of the Archdemon."

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, BioWare's next thread in the Dragon Age: Originstapestry, occurs following the events of Dragon Age: Origins and puts players into the role of a Grey Warden Commander entrusted with rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens. In addition to rebuilding the ranks of the Grey Wardens, you will be tasked with uncovering the mystery of how the darkspawn survive after the slaying of the Archdemon. How players choose to rebuild their order, resolve the conflict with the mysterious "Architect," and determine the fate of the darkspawn are just some of the many intriguing moral choices that will shape each player's heroic journey. Players will be able to import their character from Dragon Age: Origins or start out as a new Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais. Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening will be released March 16, 2010 worldwide on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and PC.

Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening will be available for $39.99 on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles in North America and will require Dragon Age: Origins to play. Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening is rated M by the ESRB and 18+ by PEGI. For more information on Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, please visit www.dragonage.com/awakening.

More information.

I'm quite looking forward to this. I had a lot of fun with DA and wouldn't mind a bit more.

The only thing I really noticed were the 40$ (=40€ in Europe) price tag. But I did pay 40€ for Mass Effect and completed the game with my first character (about 90% of all quests done) in under 15h and I would buy that game again anytime.

So unless they virtually say that Awakening will suck Bioware can count on me buying the game.

Sort of more expensive … but also more stuff than I expected so soon.

Very good news, indeed.

But this price tag… 40EUR is about 10.500 HUF right now. The original game was cheaper with my online order discount.

Wow, even more content. Well, let's hope it's as polished and solid as the actual game - which took many years to complete. I'll definetly buy it, of course.

I'll buy it, but not at $40.

It ain't $40 for PC, it's $30 at least according to Gamestop who EA link to from their DA site.

They have the engine and toolset in place, and they'll more than likely re-use a lot of assets from the primary game.

They're adding 15 hours of levels, quests, and voice-over work and charging 40?

That's pretty steep.

At that price, I'd require an entirely new game or something similarly heavy.

That said, this was exactly the kind of thing I was expecting, so at least there's no shock involved.

Thanks but no thanks

Originally Posted by Zygo
It ain't $40 for PC, it's $30 at least according to Gamestop who EA link to from their DA site.

That is right - since seeing this I've seen the info elsewhere … $30 is more reasonable.

That is $10 too much for an expansion and I don't think it will do well at that price. The only way it would be worth it is if it came with the original game and the person buying didn't have the game yet.

EDIT: Nevermind then since it is going to be $30 it is the correct price for an expansion.

Don't care about the price. One of my favourite games for many years, so I'll be in line.

1st day buy.

Definite preorder for me.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Don't care about the price. One of my favourite games for many years, so I'll be in line.

I actually just heard that the Mac version will be getting the DLC and expansion alongside the PC, which is nice since I just finally got my Mac copy and am downloading as I write …

I'm excited about this expansion pack. Price is a little expensive, but if it will consist all the DLCs with it, then it's reasonable.

The $30 was an error and has now been fixed, it's going to be $40 - which is what I paid for the original game.

15 hours, however, is NOT official. Rock/Paper/Shotgun says it is from an unconfirmed leak. I hope it's more like 30 or I'll be waiting for another Steam deal.

I won't be paying full price for a 15 hour expansion; not at Aussie game prices. I'll wait for either the bargain bin or a DLC at a much reduced price.

Way too pricey for me. By hour 60, I wanted DA to hurry up and be over with. At this point, I wouldn't even pay $40 for a full-blown sequel.

Add me to the group that won't pay $40 for 15 hours of extra DAO. I got bored before the end of the first game, although I had restarted multiple times trying different mage builds. I just always hate companions and DAO was no different for me. I'm waiting for a mod that strips out the pathetically boring companions and allows you to roll a whole party. Kudos for the construction set, but no thanks to even more companions

I really enjoyed the first game, even though it did contain a fair share of flaws. If it has an epic new story, and ties up all the loose ends with the Darkspawn, I'm willing to pay $40. Hoping this is actually more linear and story oriented as the original felt like a bunch of disconnected, open-world side quests, with a 1 hour long focused story.