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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EA, BioWare, and Bungie are joining forces to bring a Mass Effect crossover to Destiny 2. The crossover is due to arrive next month and will include new free and premium cosmetics and other in-game items.

The Destiny 2 x Mass Effect crossover launches in February

The Mass Effect crossover will launch in Destiny 2 on February 13. All players can claim the free Alliance Requisitions Bundle, which includes the Enhanced Defense Ghost Shell, Alliance Scout Frigate ship, and Alliance Drop Ship Sparrow.

Meanwhile, the Normandy Crew Bundle will be available for purchase from the in-game Eververse store and will include a Commander Shepard-inspired N7 armor set for Titans, a Garrus-inspired Vakarian set for Hunters, and a Liara-inspired Shadow Broker set for Warlocks. There will also be an Omni Strike finisher and Flux Dance emote that can be purchased with the premium Silver currency.

Before the crossover launches, new content has arrived in Destiny 2 today, January 30. Running for six weeks until March 12, the Riven’s Wishes weekly quests will be available from Mara Sov and will have a high-risk objective in the Dreaming City. The reward for completing these is a token that can be redeemed for three categories of treasures. The Wish for Strength offers Last Wish raid Deepsight weapons, the Wish for Protection offers Exotic gear from Lightfall, and the Wish for Beauty offers event mementos and Ascendant crafting materials.

There are also the Moments of Triumph that will run until June 3. To prepare players for the upcoming The Final Shape expansion, the event offers a total of 30 Triumphs that “honor the past year” of Destiny 2. As well as in-game rewards, those who complete the MMXXIII Seal can purchase the Moments of Triumph shirt from the Bungie Store, while those who complete the Paracausal Adventurer Triumph can get an exclusive patch. Both of these are available via Bungie Rewards.

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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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Those wanting to return to the world of Mass Effect will have a long wait ahead of them as the Mass Effect 4 release date is reportedly not until 2029. The report comes from renowned leaker Jeff Grubb, who claims the game is on a “similar timeline” to that of Dragon Age Dreadwolf, which is not expected to surface until next year.

Why the Mass Effect 4 release date won’t be until 2029

Mass Effect 4 is a game that is “just nowhere near coming out” according to Grubb, who was speaking about the game on the most recent Game Mess Mornings podcast. The game has a fairly lengthy development cycle and can be compared to Dragon Age Dreadwolf.

The latest Dragon Age game was announced in 2018, albeit earlier than publisher EA was anticipating. Development actually began in 2015, but thanks to reported changes in the game’s direction and layoffs at BioWare, the game is not expected to be released until the summer of 2024 at the very earliest. This gives the game a development cycle of at least nine years.

Mass Effect 4 was first revealed in 2020. For the game to be “similar in terms of timeline”, this means “we’re talking 2029” for Mass Effect 4, although Grubb called it “Mass Effect 5” as he refers to Andromeda as the fourth game. It doesn’t help that the aforementioned layoffs are also reported to have slowed down the development of Mass Effect 4.

The podcast also discussed the brief teaser video released to celebrate N7 day on November 7. The video shows a character, who fans speculate is Liara, walking through a space station. Text revealed on the teaser website also mentioned “ANDROMEDA DISTRESS SIGNAL DETECTED”, leading some to hope Liara’s crew will be responding to that signal. It also seems to confirm that the interstellar migration movement that took place in Mass Effect Andromeda will be built into the story of Mass Effect 4, although we’ll have a long time to wait to find out if this is true.

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Update: The final, 20-second long teaser is officially out, which you can see below:

Bioware is celebrating N7 Day on Tuesday and has released a few cryptic teasers for its new Mass Effect game.

During this year’s annual N7 Day celebration — something that occurs every November 7, which Bioware usually commemorates with sales and other teases — fans noticed that a binary code message was hidden on EA’s blog post about the 2023 N7 Day.

Two new teasers, with potentially more planned

This led users to translate the code, which read “Epsilon,” and to finding a landing page that featured a very brief teaser of a character walking down a hallway. Since then, a second teaser has been added to the site, showing more of the unknown character in what looks to be an N7-themed outfit.

Both videos (titled “Epsilon” and “Defiance”) are only about six seconds long and don’t give away too much information. Alongside the videos, a description text was added to the site, with references to last year’s N7 Day teaser, which was a message from Mass Effect’s Liara T’Soni.

As of the time of this writing, a new countdown on the page has appeared, counting down to about an hour from now, where presumably a new piece of information will release. As it stands, not too much is known about the new Mass Effect game, with Bioware having announced it way back in 2020 in a surprise trailer.

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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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Veteran BioWare developer Jos Hendriks has announced that he has joined Sony’s Sucker Punch Productions. Hendriks spent over 14 years at BioWare, where he primarily worked on Mass Effect games. He was laid off by the troubled studio earlier this year.

What’s Sony’s Sucker Punch working on?

During his lengthy career at BioWare, Hendriks worked on Mass Effect 2, 3, and Andromeda, as well as Dragon Age: Inquisition and Anthem. Prior to BioWare’s layoffs, he was working on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.

Hendriks says his journey into video game development began with paper level designs for Super Mario World, followed by modding levels for Unreal Tournament 99 and Timesplitters 2.

As for what he’s working on at Sucker Punch and in what capacity, Hendriks hasn’t disclosed anything yet. Thanks to numerous job descriptions and teases, it has been speculated that the team is working on another Ghost of Tsushima game alongside some mystery projects. Sucker Punch hasn’t confirmed anything yet but has denied rumors that it’s working on new Infamous and Sly Cooper games.

A follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima makes sense considering the game’s commercial success around the globe. A movie based on the game is also in the works.

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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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Fans hoped for an update on the development of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in the latest BioWare blog post. Instead, the developer announced a devastating series of layoffs.

BioWare layoffs have been announced as part of a studio-wide reorganization plan

Penned by General Manager Gary McKay, a new update on the BioWare blog revealed that roughly 50 roles are being eliminated as the studio reorganizes many of its internal teams. News of the layoffs come as gaming companies ranging from Microsoft to Niantic have similarly slashed staff in recent months.

Citing a need to “shift towards a more agile and more focused studio,” McKay claims that the layoffs were unavoidable if the studio wanted to remain competitive in an ever-changing field.

The blog post notes BioWare will work to help as many employees as possible find work at EA’s other studios. However, he concedes “not everyone will find a new role within the company.” While some employees may be able to find new work at some of the publisher’s other studios, layoffs at EA earlier this year resulted in roughly six percent of staff being let go. This may make new opportunities hard to come by.

This BioWare layoffs come, too, on the tail of a high-profile departure. In early 2023, Dragon Age Director Mac Walters left BioWare after almost two decades with the company. Between his departure and this recent round of layoffs, Dragon Age fans may have a long wait ahead of them before the franchise’s long-awaited next entry.

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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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