According to a new report, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf publisher Electronic Arts is “pretty confident” about a 2024 release date for the game. This release window has been rumored for a while and was even mentioned on an EA veteran’s LinkedIn profile, but with the company undergoing layoffs last week, fans wondered if Dreadwolf will be pushed out of 2024 or not.

EA confident about Dragon Age: Dreadwolf release date window despite recent layoffs

The aforementioned update comes from journalist and insider Jeff Grubb, who said during his latest Game Mess podcast that although there are no guarentees that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will be out this year, EA thinks developer Bioware will manage a 2024 release window. As for when we’ll actually see the game, Grubb recons that it’ll be shown off sometime in the summer.

“It will be released this year, last I heard,” Grubb said. “They’re pretty confident about that. Doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee; could slip, but right now — internally — they expect to release it later this year.”

Grubb added that the real question is when Bioware will actually show Dreadwolf off, and that there’s no word on that yet.

Announcing its layoffs, EA said that it wants to focus on its own IPs going forward.

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Dragon Age: Dreadwolf‘s release date window may have been leaked by none other than Electronic Arts’ own employee. Senior cinematic animator Kevin Scott listed the release window on his LinkedIn profile, which has since been updated. According to Scott, the game will be released sometime in 2024.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf release date “leak” seemingly corroborates previous report

As spotted by Twitter user bogorad222, Scott — a 7-year EA veteran — mentions on his LinkedIn profile that he animated gameplay characters using motion capture and “hand-keyed” animation for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, which is set for release in 2024. As soon as screenshots of Scott’s profile made rounds, he updated it to remove the release window for not only Dreadwolf but also EA Sports College Football (also listed for 2024 release).

You can view the original version below:

Scott may have erred in listing a release window on his profile and may not be privy to this information. However, known insider Tom Henderson claimed back in February that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf won’t be released until 2024. Considering 2023 is almost over, next year is certainly the earliest we’ll see the game.

That said, Bioware recently underwent a number of layoffs and ended up losing quite a few Dragon Age: Dreadwolf developers in the process. Reports have since emerged that the game’s production has been affected, possibly leading to delays.

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BioWare Edmonton is being sued by a group of former long-time employees for “shortchanging” them when it comes to severance in violation of legal standards. The developer is also accused of making it difficult for employees to find new jobs by preventing them from including their work on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in their portfolios.

Why BioWare is being sued

According to a press release spotted by Kotaku’s Ethan Gach, seven of the 50 employees recently laid off by BioWare have banded together to take the company to court. According to them, their average length of service at BioWare is around 14 years and they were terminated without cause. In recent cases of terminations without cause, Alberta Courts have awarded those affected at least one month of severance per year of service, with full value of all benefits included.

BioWare has allegedly offered “significantly less” than the above alongside adding “illegal” provisions. Despite the employees’ attempts to negotiate, the company has refused to budge. What’s more is that BioWare is forcing those who have been made redundant to sign an NDA that prevents them from including their work on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in their portfolios, which they say will make it significantly harder for them to find new jobs.

Now, the employees want courts to award them the full severance that they are due alongside punitive damages for “unreasonably poor treatment.”

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A new report claims that the recent BioWare layoffs have negatively impacted the development of Dragon Age Dreadwolf and Mass Effect. Layoffs began at the studio in June, with another round hitting developers this week. A number of important roles were eliminated and long-term employees were let go.

BioWare layoffs cause Dragon Age Dreadwolf and Mass Effect delays

According to journalist and insider Jeff Grubb (via ResetEra), Dragon Age Dreadwolf has internally been delayed, and Mass Effect’s development has slowed down, pushing it further out. BioWare had originally hoped to release Dreadwolf in September 2023, but it’s now unlikely to see the light of day until at least summer 2024.

Grubb says that BioWare — which hasn’t released a successful game in nearly a decade — has found itself in an uncomfortable position following Electronic Arts’ recent restructuring. EA’s “money-maker” Apex Legends is on the decline, and EA’s sports games are now a separate entity within the company, meaning that BioWare can no longer rely on other avenues for its subsistence.

As a result, BioWare has become an obvious candidate for layoffs. The studio needs to prove itself, and should Dreadwolf fail, its future may be bleak. Employee morale is understandably low, and Grubb says the layoffs have only made matters worse.

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BioWare has reported an undisclosed number of layoffs as it “renews” its focus on Dragon Age Dreadwolf and the next Mass Effect game. The developer has announced that it’s handing over the reins for the long-running MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic to the boutique studio, Broadsword.

BioWare provides an update on Dragon Age Dreadwolf and Mass Effect

SWTOR executive producer Keith Kanneg, who announced the restructuring in a blog post, has said that SWTOR has an exciting future ahead. With the move to Broadsword, a number of the game’s developers will be shifted to the new team. However, some roles will have to be eliminated. BioWare says it’ll make an effort to move affected team members to other roles within EA, who will continue to publish SWTOR.

“This means a renewed focus on our two key franchises: Dragon Age and Mass Effect,” Kanneg wrote. “For Dragon Age, we continue to build, polish, and tune an exceptional experience we know our fans will love. For Mass Effect, we continue pre-production with a core team of veteran storytellers who are bringing the deep franchise history forward in a spectacular new way.”

Kanneg has said that we’ll hear more about the upcoming games soon.

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Early footage of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf gameplay has leaked courtesy of an anonymous playtester. PlayStation LifeStyle has viewed the footage and while we can’t guarantee it’ll still be up by the time you read this article, we’ve summarized the leak what we’ve seen, so read on to find out more.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf gameplay features real-time hack-and-slash combat

The footage and screenshots originally appeared on Reddit and have since been scrubbed but you can find copies (or whatever’s left of them) on Imgur and ResetEra. According to the playtester, this is early Alpha footage, which aligns with a recent report that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is currently a long distance from release.

Apparently, BioWare sought inspiration from 2018’s God of War, which is quite evident in the brief clip. Rumor has it that players will not be able to directly control party members, but they will be able to make them execute special abilities. However, this feature is not currently available to playtesters.

Despite this being early footage, the playtester who leaked it claims that the quality of graphics has drastically improved in comparison to previous Dragon Age games. The user interface is similar to the one seen in Dragon Age: Inquisition but this may change. Last but not least, the player character is an Elvish “Knight” Class.

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Dragon Age: Dreadwolf release date might be set in 2024, according to a new report by known insider Tom Henderson. Although Dreadwolf’s development began in 2015, the game is said to have undergone significant changes during the course of development.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf release date may have been impacted by a rumored change in direction

Bioware and its parent company Electronic Arts have gone through some tumultuous times. A previous report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier suggested that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf had a change in direction in 2021, and now Henderson’s publication Insider Gaming has heard that a 2023 release is “rather optimistic.”

Last month, Dreadwolf suffered yet another blow when Mass Effect and Dragon Age director Mac Walters decided to leave Bioware after nearly two decades. It’s unclear what impact, if any, his departure had on Dreadwolf’s development.

According to Henderson’s new report, Dreadwolf will be similar to its predecessors and will shed its planned multiplayer components in favor of a focused, single-player game. However, it will retain some of the multiplayer features like a central hub. Additionally, Dreadwolf will lean more towards the hack-and-slash genre, and its gameplay will reportedly feel similar to Final Fantasy 15.

We’ll update our readers when we have more information.

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Mass Effect and Dragon Age Director Mac Walters has revealed he has left BioWare and is currently on a career break while he decides his next move. Progress on the development of the upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf continues onwards, although BioWare is yet to announce who will replace Walters in his previous role.

Mac Walters left Bioware at the end of 2022

While Walters has only just announced the news publicly, he actually left the developer at the end of December 2022 after 19 years of working on games such as Jade Empire and Anthem in addition to the Mass Effect franchise. His latest role had been as Production Director for Dreadwolf although he was also the Senior and Lead Writer for the original Mass Effect trilogy. As well as the games, Walters also wrote several Mass Effect graphic novels.

In a LinkedIn post, he described the decision to leave as “very difficult”:

These past 19 years have been a life-changing experience to say the least, and it made the choice to go very difficult. I’ve worked with so many wonderful people and had the privilege to be a part of the most amazing teams and projects. It’s hard to fathom it all, and I know I’ll be reflecting on it for years to come.

Walters is now going on “new adventures” and is currently on a career break, following in the footsteps of other high-profile departures like Dragon Age: Dreadwolf executive producer Christian Dailey and Senior Creative Director of Dragon Age Matthew Goldman.

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BioWare has said that Dragon Age: Deadwolf is being designed for series veterans and newcomers alike. The developer also hinted at a new protagonist. In a lengthy development update on its website, BioWare talked about crafting a story for those who are familiar with the Dragon Age lore and those who aren’t familiar with the series at all. However, Dreadwolf will feature familiar themes and faces so series fans will have have something to look forward to.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will recognize a varied audience

Senior writer Sylvia Feketekuty said that in the eight years since the last Dragon Age game, she’s come across adults “fondly reminiscing” about playing the game in their teens. For her, Dreadwolf’s story has to strike a balance between answering long-standing questions while ensuring newcomers aren’t lost and can make sense of things.

Narrative editor Ryan Cormier added:

Unlike the vast galaxies we explore in our other franchises, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf returns us to Thedas, where we can revisit friends and places that are familiar. Some fans haven’t spent time with Dragon Age since the 2014 release of Inquisition, while others have read every comic and story published since. Others never played a Dragon Age game at all and have no idea who the bald guy is (he’s Solas). It’s a varied audience, and development for Dreadwolf has included conversations about how the team can simultaneously reward our returning fans and welcome new ones.

Feketekuty teased that there are “other things” to make Dreadwolf enticing for veterans and newcomers but she can’t get into those at the moment.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will provide BioWare a much-needed opportunity to redeem itself following some botched projects and reports of a toxic work environment. Here’s hoping the studio finds its “magic” again.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has yet to be dated.

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BioWare has revealed the official name of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf for the next entry in the franchise that has been, up until now, tentatively called “Dragon Age 4.” Dragon Age fans will quickly recognize that the game will focus on Solas from Dragon Age: Inquisition. (WARNING: There will be some spoilers for that game here if you haven’t played through the Trespasser DLC that released in September 2015.)

Who the “Dread Wolf” is in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf

May the Dread Wolf take you.

Your newest adventure begins in Dragon Age: #Dreadwolf. pic.twitter.com/riYYZXS7O1

— Dragon Age (@dragonage) June 2, 2022

As detailed on BioWare’s official blog, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will feature Solas, otherwise known as the Dread Wolf, as the antagonist. Given that he is a seemingly polite elven companion of the protagonist in Dragon Age: Inquisition for pretty much the entire game until his surprising heel turn near the end of the Trespasser DLC, many will understandably feel conflicted about him. The blog writes:

Some say he might be an ancient elven god, but some say not. Others say a betrayer of his people…or a savior who seeks to rescue them at the cost of your world. His motives are inscrutable and his methods sometimes questionable, earning him a reputation as something of a trickster deity—a player of dark and dangerous games.

BioWare ensures that new players will see him “properly introduce himself when the time is right” in case they haven’t played through Dragon Age: Inquisition and its DLC.

The developer also indicates that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will not be releasing in 2022, but that it will share more news of the game later this year. There is no news yet on which platforms it will be on.

Another official blog post in late February revealed that Bioware had scrapped “Dragon Age 4” twice in pre-production, but was in full swing with production on the latest version of the game. EA had originally canceled Dragon Age 4 because it did not have any live-service elements, but after Anthem flopped and its reworking canceled, Dragon Age 4 was thankfully brought back to the table as a single player-only game.

In other news, Sony Interactive Entertainment has established a software business development unit in China, and a fake Final Fantasy 16 State of Play ‘leak’ is circulating right now.

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