Dragon Age - Release Window

EA's recent financial conference call has been chock full of interesting tidbits, including the comment that BioWare's Dragon Age will be released in fiscal 2009, which begins in April. From FiringSquad:

During Electronic Arts's financial conference call with analysts following the release of their latest financial numbers, company execs officially revealed that they will be publishing the long-in-development BioWare developed fantasy RPG Dragon Age. The game, first revealed by BioWare nearly four years ago at E3, has been mostly under a code of silence since its announcement with the last major preview published by the Games for Windows magazine over a year ago. The game is now slated to be published by EA in its fiscal 2009 year which begins on April 1.

Thanks, r3dshift!
More information.

I'm concerned that this will hurt our plans to discuss how EA is of course going to cancel Dragon Age, which is vaporware that will never appear because EA is inherently evil. I believe this announcement shows a lack of respect for the topics discussed on this forum.

Good point, PatrickWeekes. Don't worry. We'll all do our best.

Originally Posted by PatrickWeekes
I'm concerned that this will hurt our plans to discuss how EA is of course going to cancel Dragon Age, which is vaporware that will never appear because EA is inherently evil. I believe this announcement shows a lack of respect for the topics discussed on this forum.

No - it just shows that EA are such lowlife scumbags that they will engage in this sort of obvious subterfuge to raise stock prices before announcing that it will be changed to a console action game in the style of the Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance series … which will send the stocks *soaring* … and there will be great rejoicing, except for a few fat dweebs with thick glasses living in their parents' basements fondling their d20's and whining about 'the good ole days' …

Hopefully this means more accurate information about the game soon! And maybe more screenshots - the ones currently out are slightly outdated, hehe.

Hopefully this gives them time to get the toolset and standalone server working just perfect. Wouldn't want to squelch the rumours of how those are top prioirty and how flexible and simple the ruleset will be to change without using any sort of "hak" system. It will be a nice change to have all changes need to be server side only - finally!

Nope, this only shows that EA are quick to rush it out to stores. Or at least announce it as such (Dragon Age may still redeem itself if it goes the Spore way) before a multitude of delays. Same old, same old.

Guys, there is no evidence whatsoever that Dragon Age will not be ready for November 2008. I was expecting it to be released this coming November before EA's announcement during yesterday's conference call - and this latest announcement comes as no surprise to me at all - and I submit - changes nothing.

My bet is that Dragon Age will be in stores on November 20, 2008.

People have been lulled into this sense of "Dragon Age's release TBA sometime FAR away in the future" only because BioWare has released a handful of screenshots to date and has not hyped the game.

And that's the ONLY reason people on the net have taken this approach.

I put it to you that the reason BioWare has been very quiet on Dragon Age to date is because they wish to retain a competitive edge, do not feel the need to pre-hype the title given their reputation - and do not want to be in the position where they pre-announce features that end up being cut back.

Moreover, without a publisher who would have otherwise paid for hype junkets - BioWare would have been spending publicity dollars they would never have recouped directly from the publisher who would have had to be signed with at some point in the game dev cycle. To what end? That's throwing money away.

The ordinary drive in publicity comes from the publisher, not from the developer. Until the EA deal was approved earlier this month when the acquisition of BioWare/Pandemic by EA actually closed - Dragon Age didn't have a publisher. Development of Dragon Age has been entirely self-funded within BioWare/Elevation- and with no publisher screaming for milestone delivery and insisting on hyping the game and pressing for a release *soonest* - Dragon Age development has carried on quietly.

Which means exactly that. It has proceeded quietly; that does not mean it has not proceeded at all. People are confusing the two concepts.

Quietly developed… until now, of course. Now, like it or not, Dragon Age has a publisher. Accordingly, Dragon Age's development team must return to earth. Yes, Dragon Age's dev team is now going to have to put up with the "problem" of having to be developed like any other commercial title. Justify the dev budget and ship the damn product.

Frankly - I think the big question is not when Dragon Age will be released, but whether it will be only a PC title. My money is on a 360 port for sure; indeed, I think it even money on a 360 simultaneous release.

The repetition that "Dragon Age will be a PC only title" is not a belief I share. There is absolutely not a single good commercial reason why it should not be a cross-platform release. In fact, I think it would be leaving $150-200 million on the table to release it as a PC only title in this current market.

Last I checked - neither EA nor the good doctors at BioWare are fools. That means a console port. When that will be released is a better topic for reasonable speculation.

Did anyone take notice of that date; April 1??? I always worry when I see that for some reason. Probably because it's the date we've been discussing with Cleve for years!!

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
Hopefully this gives them time to get the toolset and standalone server working just perfect. Wouldn't want to squelch the rumours of how those are top prioirty and how flexible and simple the ruleset will be to change without using any sort of "hak" system. It will be a nice change to have all changes need to be server side only - finally!

Could you explain to me why you think there is a stand alone server contemplated for Dragon Age?

If you are of the belief that there is a PW capability in Dragon Age - there isn't. Unlike NWN, Dragon Age loads only the current level into memory. It does not permit more than one area to be active at any time. Ever. I expect that level transition in multiplayer is of the "You must gather your party before venturing forth" variety of play.

Ergo, I think it extremely unlikely that there will be a stand alone server app for Dragon Age.

@Steel_Wind: But an AAA game never gets released without hyping it at least 6 months before. Since there is still no concrete news at the end of January, I don't expect a release in summer any more. The earliest release date I would agree is septembre or octobre, most likely they planned for a christmas release. But since there is still no concrete release date it also indicates, that they are not sure about the release 'til now. So it could still get "delayed" to Q1 2009.

Console: I also suspect, that there will be a console release. And I don't think the announcement "DA is going to consoles only" would have a bad influence on the stock value. Rather I think, EA's stock value would increase.

Originally Posted by Avantenor
@Steel_Wind: But an AAA game never gets released without hyping it at least 6 months before. Since there is still no concrete news at the end of January, I don't expect a release in summer any more. The earliest release date I would agree is septembre or octobre, most likely they planned for a christmas release. But since there is still no concrete release date it also indicates, that they are not sure about the release 'til now. So it could still get "delayed" to Q1 2009.

Not a chance of that. Blizzard can get away with delaying to February. Nobody else does. That would include BioWare/EA. Won't happen.

This will not be a summer release - I agree. That means 4th quarter. If you are going to release 4th quarter - you HAVE to be in stores on November 27, 2008 for Black Friday the following day. That is not open to negotiation. Period.

To be sure you ARE in stores on that day - you make sure you are shipping 2 weeks previous. Hence, November 20, 2008 as the projected date. If I am off, it will not be by much.

That was the same rationale behind Mass Effect's release date as well, I might add.

Console: I also suspect, that there will be a console release. And I don't think the announcement "DA is going to consoles only" would have a bad influence on the stock value. Rather I think, EA's stock value would increase.

BioWare would not want to alienate their PC userbase - many of who are, lets face it, somewhat defensive and "anti-console". The course they need to chart is to keep the PC users (who are primarily their forum registrants) happy - while reaching console players as well.

That's the mission.

Ah, I was worried over nothing.

Originally Posted by PatrickWeekes
Ah, I was worried over nothing.

It is a little regrettable that BioWare got twitchy and locked their forum topics on release dates. I know why they do it - but given the announcement by the publisher - it is an entirely legitimate topic of conversation.

I know the rationale from BioWare is that the publisher does not know when it is going to be released - only BioWare does. *ahem*

While I share the sentiment, I think EA paid 600 million USD + so that *they* would be the people making those decisions, not the devs at BioWare. Given EA's release history and penchant for, *ahem*, committed development (read, crunch like hell), I think DA will be released by November 2008 - whether the devs at BioWare like the taste of that or not.

Welcome to developing a game with a publisher. Welcome to EA.

I never doubted Dragon Age's release and I still assume it will be PC-only (at least for the initial release).

As you'd expect, we've got a variety of readers who agree and plenty who disagree.

I take it you think "we" are a bunch of loony anti-EA, anti-BioWare psychos or something but I visit a variety of disparate gaming websites and whenever Dragon Age is raised (not by me) someone will say they thought it was canceled or BioWare doesn't make PC RPGs anymore. In fact, you'll see this on the official BioWare forums more than anywhere else. That isn't or fault, so BioWare's decisions have miscommunicated or confused or sent mixed signals to a bunch of people.

You guys can run your PR however you like and the fact that DA didn't have a publisher, or that ME was coming out first, are both rational explanations for the current course. They're also choices. Plenty of self-funded studios publicise their projects before a publisher is signed and I notice a BioWarian (sorry, forget who it was) saying the other day that as BioWare grows, they'll probably push PR on multiple titles at once.

So, if you're tired of seeing these reactions, don't forget that we didn't invent them. I really hope we see you posting more here again but until BioWare decides to release new DA material, there are going to be posters all over the 'net making assumptions about its status.

In summary: nice to see you again.

Edit: "you" being Patrick after Steel-Wind pipped my reply.

At least EA is a publisher that can provide support for at least a year…

Still no friend of EA. EA did everything to show RPG players that they don't care for RPGs. Ultima and Lands of Lore as examples. They swallowed many developers, creative people. But after they were part of EA they haven't been creative anymore. A game like Assassin's Creed would never have been developed by an internal EA studios. At least I couldn't imagine.

So even if Riccitello says EA is boring gamers to death and tries to renew EA's image… we still have no proof that this is reallly true. We only see what EA did for many years. They bought many companies, IPs and produced endless sequels of once beloved titles. And it needs more than one BioWare release (of a game been developed since 2003) to convince me they changed.

So, no offense, but I'm sceptical. So I can't be disappointed if the result is the same as ever. I don't believe in marketing campaigns.

The only thing I'll say on this topic is that Im really looking forward to Dragon Age and any info that may be released about it . I dont really give a damn about the rest, and I'll judge the game, the makers and the publisher once I get around playing it.

Originally Posted by Steel_Wind
While I share the sentiment, I think EA paid 600 million USD + so that *they* would be the people making those decisions, not the devs at BioWare. Given EA's release history and penchant for, *ahem*, committed development (read, crunch like hell), I think DA will be released by November 2008 - whether the devs at BioWare like the taste of that or not.

Welcome to developing a game with a publisher. Welcome to EA.

Please, Steel, continue to explain the politics and logistics of my job to me in a slightly patronizing tone. Any minute now, I'll be baited into releasing actual insider information.

Originally Posted by Galaad
The only thing I'll say on this topic is that Im really looking forward to Dragon Age and any info that may be released about it . I dont really give a damn about the rest, and I'll judge the game, the makers and the publisher once I get around playing it.

I agree. I look forward to seeing what Bioware does in their first IP for the PC crowd. The hype is my least favorite part of the game release process anyway and the last thing to use to judge the game. Just glad to hear it's on the way.

Originally Posted by magerette
I agree. I look forward to seeing what Bioware does in their first IP for the PC crowd. The hype is my least favorite part of the game release process anyway and the last thing to use to judge the game. Just glad to hear it's on the way.

I agree with this completely. My least favorite part of Mass Effect was watching people construct a completely different game in their heads based on what they read into the press releases.

Almost makes you want to just not announce a game until a few months before release, at all, so you're just springing it on people, and they don't have time to get burned out by overhype or unrealistic expectations.

I doubt it'll ever happen, though.