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Rumor: Dragon Age III is targeting next-gen, delayed to 2014

P

Pooya

Member
http://kotaku.com/5963954/a-dragon-age-iii-mystery-a-star-wars-theory-and-some-gaming-secrets

shocking news.

by Superannuation , other tidbits about Splash Damage as well.

An EA Shanghai level designer who worked on a vertical slice of Dragon Age III earlier in the year states on his LinkedIn page that the "Scope of the DAIII has been chaged [sic], which will target next gen platform [sic] and will be postpone [sic] to 2014." The claim of the delay is probably a misinterpretation of the rumors of the RPG sequel's delays from fiscal 2013 (before March 31, 2013) to fiscal 2014 (after that date), which was pegged to EA wanting to avoid the rushed development criticisms that dogged Dragon Age II. However, those "development cycle" posits are seemingly not entirely accurate, as the designer says that EA wanted to refocus Dragon Age III from a current-generation title to a marquee next-generation RPG.

Dragon Age III coming to next-generation platforms should not be a surprise to anyone, as EA tellingly excluded any specifics on platforms in the game's September announcement—a way of saying that the intended platforms have not yet been announced.
Click to expand...




Dragon Age III

March 2012 to September 2012

Team Members: Tao Gu

Lead Level Designer for EASH team
In charge of concent and layout design from paper to engine for vertical slice
Scope of the DAIII has been chaged, which will target next gen platform and will be postpone to 2014.
Click to expand...
 
L

luxarific

Nork unification denier
I'm a fan of the series (loved the first game, sort of liked the second game but it really had big issues) - this is good news.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
BioWare was recently mentioning that they were humoring delaying the game again if they felt they needed more time, so I would totally believe this.
 
I

Impeccable

Member
There will most likely be a STRONG 2014 line-up for next gen at this rate already with Fallout, DA and all the unannounced games.
 
B

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Make sense, DA3 and ME4 should be focused for next-gen at this point, the current consoles only have a year or two left anyway.
 
S

slightconfuse

Banned
wether is delayed to the next fiscal year or next gen more time is a good thing. as much as i liked DA 2 is was rough in some spots.

anyone think this could be most wanted thing f being on crrent and next-gen at same time?
 
C

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
I believe rushing the game is a portion of what did Dragon Age II in, so hopefully EA backs off and lets them take a few more years to get this one right. I can wait.
 
P

Patryn

Member
I'm just shocked it wasn't already targeting next-gen. I figured given the late 2013 window it was going to be a bridging title (both 360/PS3 and next-gen). Guessing they want to be next-gen's Oblivion?

Either way, more time in the oven probably isn't a bad thing. Nice to see that EA is learning that rushing games can occasionally totally blow up in people's faces.

But for the love of God, can Bioware shut the fuck up until they have gameplay videos to show off? They said they wouldn't show anything until they had something to show, but we're constantly getting leaks of concept art, a lone screenshot, what have you.
 
A

Aeana

Member
I'd like them to spend a lot of time on this and get it right, but I do hope that transitioning to new platforms doesn't take up too much of that time.
 
J

Jarmel

Banned
Nirolak said:
BioWare was recently mentioning that they were humoring delaying the game again if they felt they needed more time, so I would totally believe this.
Click to expand...

They need to lock down their quality control so more time is a good thing. If ME3 had gotten another 6-8 months in the oven, it would have turned out much much better.
 
T

ThingontheFloor

Member
YES PLEASE. A completely fresh new start with new hardware and, more importantly, more time would be great for this series. Please don't rush this like you rushed DAII, Bioware.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Aeana said:
I'd like them to spend a lot of time on this and get it right, but I do hope that transitioning to new platforms doesn't take up too much of that time.
Click to expand...

I imagine Frostbite 2 actually runs and works better on next-gen than it does on this one, so that should help.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Patryn said:
I'm just shocked it wasn't already targeting next-gen. I figured given the late 2013 window it was going to be a bridging title (both 360/PS3 and next-gen). Guessing they want to be next-gen's Oblivion?

Either way, more time in the oven probably isn't a bad thing. Nice to see that EA is learning that rushing games can occasionally totally blow up in people's faces.

But for the love of God, can Bioware shut the fuck up until they have gameplay videos to show off? They said they wouldn't show anything until they had something to show, but we're constantly getting leaks of concept art, a lone screenshot, what have you.
Click to expand...

EA's also in a much better financial position than they were a few years back.

They can afford to sit on titles and franchises that need reworking much longer with games like FIFA and Battlefield hitting near 20 million copies these days.
 
B

BrokenEchelon

Banned
Wouldn't surprise me at all. I was confused when they first announced it because they were targeting a late 2013 release. Seems like too late for such a high profile game considering at least one (probably both) of the new systems will be out during that same holiday season.
 
C

cuyahoga

Dudebro, My Shit is Fucked Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time
Did you guys glance over this?
The claim of the delay is probably a misinterpretation of the rumors of the RPG sequel's delays from fiscal 2013 (before March 31, 2013) to fiscal 2014 (after that date), which was pegged to EA wanting to avoid the rushed development criticisms that dogged Dragon Age II.
Click to expand...
Seems plausible given that the guy ended his work on DA3 in September when the game was announced with a late 2013 date. Kinda doubt that has changed in the past two months.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
cuyahoga said:
Did you guys glance over this?Seems plausible given that the guy ended his work on DA3 in September when the game was announced with a late 2013 date. Kinda doubt that has changed in the past two months.
Click to expand...

It's entirely possible for both to be true.

March 2014 is fiscal 2014 and calendar 2014.

It's also late enough that between the two platforms and the PC, it's not a vastly different audience in terms of buying potential than what Dragon Age currently sells, and early titles have much better titles than late-gen titles.
 
Jibbajabbawockky

Jibbajabbawockky

Member
Patryn said:
I'm just shocked it wasn't already targeting next-gen. I figured given the late 2013 window it was going to be a bridging title (both 360/PS3 and next-gen). Guessing they want to be next-gen's Oblivion?
Click to expand...

I always figured DA3 would be a next gen game or at least a transitional game, since its using Frostbite and all.

I still have a hard time thinking that EA of all companies would give DA3 until 2014 to come out. Maybe early 2014, but I just can't see them giving BioWare upwards of 3+ years to work on a game like Dragon Age. They've been pretty regular now in having a BioWare game come out at least every calendar year and if DA3 is pushed to 2014, they'd not have any BioWare game out... unless I suppose they're including Command and Conquer. Especially after how they seemingly gave BioWare anything and everything they needed to build TOR and then that underperformed their expectations.

Patryn said:
Either way, more time in the oven probably isn't a bad thing. Nice to see that EA is learning that rushing games can occasionally totally blow up in people's faces.
Click to expand...

Sure, but then again, I wonder if possibly just giving the game more development time isn't also possibly dooming it to failure as well. What are EA's expectations going to be for Dragon Age? With Dragon Age 2 they were able to rush that out the door so quickly they probably didn't need to spend much on it and thus were ok with how it performed, relative to how much they had to invest in it. But for a game that's potentially going to be spending 3+ years in development, are they going to be expecting Call of Duty or Skyrim numbers? And what design changes to make the game more likely to hit CoD numbers are being pushed in as a result of the extra development time, given possibly higher sales expectations?
 
P

Patryn

Member
Jibbajabbawockky said:
I always figured DA3 would be a next gen game or at least a transitional game, since its using Frostbite and all.

I still have a hard time thinking that EA of all companies would give DA3 until 2014 to come out. Maybe early 2014, but I just can't see them giving BioWare upwards of 3+ years to work on a game like Dragon Age. They've been pretty regular now in having a BioWare game come out at least every calendar year and if DA3 is pushed to 2014, they'd not have any BioWare game out... unless I suppose they're including Command and Conquer.



Sure, but then again, I wonder if possibly just giving the game more development time isn't also possibly dooming it to failure as well. What are EA's expectations going to be for Dragon Age? With Dragon Age 2 they were able to rush that out the door so quickly they probably didn't need to spend much on it and thus were ok with how it performed. BUt for a game that's potentially going to be spending 3+ years in development, are they going to be expecting Call of Duty or Skyrim numbers? And what design changes to make the game more likely to hit CoD numbers are being pushed in as a result of the extra development time?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be shocked if EA is expecting DA3 to be somewhere in the ballpark of the Mass Effect series. It really depends on the budget of the project, and whether EA realizes just how much damage was done to the brand with DA2.

Then again, if it's solely next-gen that means it'll be selling to a much smaller audience, so who knows?
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
NBtoaster said:
They have the freedom to do that?
Click to expand...

Yeah the labels have a fair amount of authority in managing their development unless their game is absolutely critical (like FIFA isn't going to be allowed to miss a year).

A dead franchise is worthless in the long run.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Jibbajabbawockky said:
I always figured DA3 would be a next gen game or at least a transitional game, since its using Frostbite and all.

I still have a hard time thinking that EA of all companies would give DA3 until 2014 to come out. Maybe early 2014, but I just can't see them giving BioWare upwards of 3+ years to work on a game like Dragon Age. They've been pretty regular now in having a BioWare game come out at least every calendar year and if DA3 is pushed to 2014, they'd not have any BioWare game out... unless I suppose they're including Command and Conquer. Especially after how they seemingly gave BioWare anything and everything they needed to build TOR and then that underperformed their expectations.



Sure, but then again, I wonder if possibly just giving the game more development time isn't also possibly dooming it to failure as well. What are EA's expectations going to be for Dragon Age? With Dragon Age 2 they were able to rush that out the door so quickly they probably didn't need to spend much on it and thus were ok with how it performed, relative to how much they had to invest in it. But for a game that's potentially going to be spending 3+ years in development, are they going to be expecting Call of Duty or Skyrim numbers? And what design changes to make the game more likely to hit CoD numbers are being pushed in as a result of the extra development time, given possibly higher sales expectations?
Click to expand...
Consider that EA is pretty wealthy now and is looking to build megahit franchises.

The need for the short term strategy is over, so it's far more worth their while to take the time to try and push toward 5-10+ million than to shove a game out the door.

Once the series is stable, they will presumably return to shorter development cycles built directly on the assets and gameplay from the last.
 
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