New 'Dragon Age' game news: Fourth installment focuses more on story and characters

BioWare is readying a more story-centered "Dragon Age" game for its fourth installment.Dragon Age website

A new "Dragon Age" game is in the works, and it seems promising as developers are planning for it to be more focused on the story and the characters.

The news of a new "Dragon Age" game was initially made known to the public last May 2017. However, details following this announcement have been sparse. BioWare, the company responsible for the "Dragon Age" series, is currently focusing on another game called "Anthem."

However, last Jan. 24, the executive producer of the "Dragon Age" series, Mark Darrah, tweeted that "Dragon Age 4" is currently in development. He said that "there are people hard at work on both franchises" and that he looks forward to sharing more information in the future. Darrah also said that "Anthem" is "up next." Due to the complexity of the launch, "Anthem"'s release has been moved to early 2019 which means the next "Dragon Age" game will come even later than that.

Following this, BioWare's general manager Casey Hudson said in a tweet that the next installment would be more "story & character focused". Furthermore, he also mentioned that they would design the game as a "live" experience. By "live," the developers mean a story that continues even after the main story is over, rather than a multiplayer game. "Dragon Age" is well-known for its single-player, open-world immersive storytelling, so it is great to hear that they will not veer away from this.

Furthermore, fans can look forward to the franchise continuing even past the fourth installment. "There is no planned ending for DA. There is an evolving plan that tends to look 2 games ahead or so," said Mike Laidlaw, "Dragon Age's" former Creative Director, in a tweet.

Aside from this, no other details regarding the game's development progress nor a release date have been revealed. For now, fans can take comfort in the fact that the development team is already working on the game.

The "Dragon Age" series currently has three games under the series. The latest one, "Dragon Age: Inquisition," was released on November 2014 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.