BioWare Releases “Dragon Age 4” Trailer At Game Awards

The Game Awards 2020 livestream showcased the best the gaming industry had to offer during this past year. Last of Us Part II came out as the uncontested champion, winning seven of its ten nominations. There are many who feel the awards show overlooked several notable indie games, such as Supergiant’s Hades, which was recently named Game of the Year by the Washington Post. Even with this minor controversy, it was a good night for the industry, and developer BioWare used the event to debut a trailer for the Dragon Age 4, the next iteration of their acclaimed franchise.

The trailer is a cinematic one, though, with no actual gameplay shown. The clip does, however, give some hints as to the plot, though nothing concrete was provided. It appears that the game will continue on with the successful formula they’ve used in previous editions, focusing on player choice to develop the character and the world around them as the main component to progressing the story.

The series first premiered on the Xbox 360 in 2009 with Dragon Age: Origins to near universal acclaim. Critics praised the inventive story mechanics and immersive world, while fans were captivated by the combat mechanics and updates to the traditional action-RPG format. That game would go on to be named on a plethora of “Best of the Year” lists, and even got nominated for the Game of the Year award in 2010.

The franchise has only grown since, with a several sequels releasing to similar, though slightly less, success, as well as transferring into other media realms, such as tabletop gaming and comics.. The Dragon Age games are some of the most popular created by BioWare and news of a new product came as an unexpected and delightful surprise.

However, there was no timeline provided and it’s likely the game is still several years off. Chances are that Dragon Age 4 won’t hit stores until late 2022 at the earliest. While BioWare has had some prolific disappointments of late, such as the Mass Effect spin-off Andromeda and online RPG Anthem, they remain a respected and trusted developer who have, hopefully, learned from their mistakes and won’t rush this project. The full trailer can be seen below: