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Dragon Age 4 is allegedly single-player thanks to Jedi Fallen Order's success

With the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the flop of Anthem, planned multiplayer features for the next Dragon Age have seemingly been dropped.

TJ Denzer

February 25, 2021 12:36 PM

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Reportedly, Dragon Age 4 was originally planned to have some games-as-a-service features attached to it. Players would engage with a constant multiplayer element. Perspective has changed on the matter for Electronic Arts and BioWare, though. Apparently, plans to include multiplayer features have been dropped, and the decision may have been spurred by both the success of single-player in Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the unfortunate lack of success BioWare’s Anthem.

Electronic Arts’ recent supposed decision to pull multiplayer features from Dragon Age 4 comes a report at Bloomberg immediately following EA’s decision to shutter development on Anthem Next, aimed at fixing many of the problems in the game. Anthem’s failure to find success reportedly allegedly played a part in EA’s decision, but it was Respawn Entertainment’s sheer homerun with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order that really boosted the publisher’s faith in a purely single-player experience.

BioWare itself has also apparently been vocal in driving the next Dragon Age game back towards a single-player experience. Sources familiar with the discussions claim leadership at BioWare did not wish to diverge resources to a games-as-a-service model within the next Dragon Age title.

The mood at BioWare on single-player and EA’s willingness to concede towards the single-player focus has also, no doubt, been aided by the positive response to BioWare’s closest upcoming project, Mass Effect Legendary Edition. It is another single-player experience, which re-explores the recrafted universe of the original trilogy with graphical updates and quality-of-life tweaks to bring it more in line with modern visuals and gameplay and is slated for launch in May 2021.

Regardless, the shifting tides at Electronic Arts with the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the cancellation of Anthem seem to mean good tidings for those hoping Dragon Age 4 will remain a single-player RPG. Stay tuned for more information and updates on the next game of the Dragon Age franchise as it becomes available.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.