EA reveals first Dragon Age 2 DLC

By Robert Purchese Published 7 January, 2011

A bonus companion and mission.

The first piece of meaningful Dragon Age 2 downloadable content will be called The Exiled Prince, EA has revealed.

A video teasing the add-on shows a man called Sebastian Vael having a strop because his family was killed and now he's the lonely heir to something or another, boo hoo. Some woman tries to talk him out of going for revenge, but Sebastian - with his faint Scottish accent - won't hear a word of it. He even shoots an arrow that narrowly misses her.

Turns out you can recruit "noble archer" Sebastian for the "majority" of Dragon Age 2.

The Exiled Prince costs 560 Microsoft Points or $7. It's also part of the £15-worth of free additional content given to those who buy the Signature Edition of Dragon Age II. Pre-order the game before 11th January and you'll be upgraded to a Signature Edition for free.

The Signature Edition also packs a Dragon Age 2 soundtrack and in-game digital armoury.

Those assassins are about to get royally messed up.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (53) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • ryandsimmons #1 1 year ago

    Preordered then...

    I don't like it though. This should come under Project $10, not as a preorder bonus.

  • Ikaros_O #2 1 year ago

    Really? Already announced DLC before the games release? You could of at least waited till after release before ripping people off.

  • Turrican #3 1 year ago

    Project make a game and then strip out 30% of it to drip back in later.

    They've gone too far with this kind of thing. Yes meaningful DLC like Lair of the Shadow Broker is worth it but rewarding people who pre-order (and are by definition being reckless by not waiting for reviews or public reception) while punishing people who don't is a bit nasty in my book.

  • Spectral #4 1 year ago

    If the original DA taught me anything, it was to wait for the inevitable GOTY or ultimate edition a year or so later.
    Edited by Spectral at 07/01/11 @ 14:40

  • jaxon58 #5 1 year ago

    But when you submit a game to Sony/MS, you need to show that DLC works and can be downloaded/added to your base game. So DLC needs to be in development at the same time as a submission, it doesn't mean it was already part of the basic game and has been ripped out for money reasons.

  • Elukka #6 1 year ago

    What Turrican said. At least have the common decency of telling about DLC after the game's released to the public. Original DA addons were amongst the worst in this new DLC Era, do I probably won't miss too much by giving these a pass. Anyhoo, cutting stuff from a yet-to-be-released game goes too far. If it's finished, if it's on the disc or day one download, it needs to be included in the package.

  • ChromeMud #7 1 year ago

    @Turrican

    Too right. It's another way to charge more for a game before release. Many people are seeing the light by waiting for the ultimate editions (when discounted) of certain games and buying or playing something else in the meantime. Forget these pre-order bonuses, save your money, game shouldn't be bad without it. "OOh an avatar T-shirt if I pre-order......F##K O##!"

  • geeza2020 #8 1 year ago

    This is fucking disgraceful. EA have gone from fucking over all the developers they owned to fucking the consumers instead. Looks like I'll be waiting for a price drop/pre-owned (seeing as there seems to be no project $10 here) before I buy this if I have to then pay more to play the "full" game anyway.

  • RobotRocker #9 1 year ago

    Quoting jaxon58 because otherwise you will ignore it and it will turn into a Daily Mail comments section

    But when you submit a game to Sony/MS, you need to show that DLC works and can be downloaded/added to your base game. So DLC needs to be in development at the same time as a submission, it doesn't mean it was already part of the basic game and has been ripped out for money reasons.

    The increasing amount of DLC being revealed pre-launch is due to MS and Sony having even more stringent QA policy than existed at the console launch. If developers wait till post launch, they will be further back in the queue and it will cost more money.

    Business realities, deal with it, nerds etc, etc.

  • geeza2020 #10 1 year ago

    Err, we are dealing with it, as has been mentioned by myself and others, by not buying the game at full price. Business realities work for both customers AND businesses by the way.

  • RobotRocker #11 1 year ago

    Yes, but you are still ignoring the fact that this all costs money to produce and they have to do it because of MS and Sony who don't want lawsuits because a bug in some DLC wipes customers hard drives. Its selective ignorance of fact and people whine about it constantly because it doesn't fit their idealised notion of free DLC or that everything has to be in the game at first. I mean, next you will all be retroactively crying that the old Command & Conquer and Warcraft expansions on the PC were developers nickel and dime-ing people for content that should have already been in the game when a lot of them were comprised of elements cut in development and then re-established in expansion packs (Especially in Command & Conquer).

    The sense of entitlement gamers have gotten lately has been hilarious and pathetic.

  • Eraysor #12 1 year ago

    So basically just content removed from the main game and sold as DLC. Nice one EA.

  • geeza2020 #13 1 year ago

    For all your harping about business practices RobotRocker you are forgetting one of the most fundamental basics of business, and thats the customer is always right, which gives us the right to moan and bitch all we want, and not buy things when we feel we are being ripped off.

  • m_brackley #14 1 year ago

    I do think this is a step too far - I can see at a strech the whole project $10 thing to encourage buying it new - but having to pre-order to get these characters/missions is taking the pi$$

    Why are they screwing over people like me that like to buy a game when walking into the shop!
    I'm not helping the situation as I don't wanna miss out so I've had to order it - oh well!

  • glottis0 #15 1 year ago

    @Eraysor- "So basically just content removed from the main game and sold as DLC. Nice one EA."

    I know a lot of people share this opinion but if you break it down it doesn't make much sense. It sounds like what you expect is, regardless of how long something was in development, how many people were involved, and how much was spent on it, you expect to get everything the studio made since their last game for £35? What entitles you to that?

    Either the game is worth the money or it isn't - the DLC is worth it or it isn't, but you should judge that on the content of either, not on some misguided sense of what you 'should' be getting. So many people that say stuff like this are happy to buy an 8-hour game with no DLC, but are outraged at getting a 24-hour game with 2-hours of day one DLC. It's nonsense!!

  • metalangel #16 1 year ago

    @glottis: what they're saying is that there is stuff being made with the intention that it won't be included in the main product, even though the main product isn't done yet either. Additionally, it is priced completely out of proportion with the amount of content you get in the main game.

  • Gastrian #17 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • Ryuken #18 1 year ago

    I guess EA and Bioware didn't get the memo that their DLC scheme ruined DA's reputation? On PC it turned DA:o into an always-online-connected DRM if you wanted your saves back and the DLC itself was in most cases lacklustre, especially the stuff that came after the game was released. Very poor show while the main game was very decent.

    Waiting for an ultimate edition here as well (if it's any good at least), this is going way too far.

  • m_brackley #19 1 year ago

    The way I see it DLC when a game is launched is just wrong, its just a way of getting more money from the consumer

    5 Years ago you wouldn't be able to get away with this - but now with the advent of the ability to do this with fast internet connections its suddenly acceptable to make a game / split a chunk of it apart and say "this is DLC" and make you pay or jump through hoops to get it

  • makememoo #20 1 year ago

    I love how easily people are lead "they have to do this to prove the MS/Sony that their DLC is compatible" etc. Must I remind you that paid for DLC in it's current and ridiculous form is only a couple of years old and in the past people just released complete games for the cover price? But we're supposed to accept that it's OK, and worse, we accept that we know we don't even get the full game? Not for me. I assume I will be picking up DA2 and ME3 in the first decent steam sale and only then because my appreciation of what Bioware do still extends far enough.
    Edited by makememoo at 07/01/11 @ 15:40

  • metalangel #21 1 year ago

    @Gastrian: All the preorder bonus items in the world are pointless if it turns out you don't like the game. Meanwhile someone else buys it new after launch and loves it but gets nothing!

    EA are over the moon about DLC, they can chop their games into pieces and assembling those pieces will cost you far more than if you just got them all in one package.

  • Makeem95 #22 1 year ago

    Thank god I bought enough games during Steam's Xmas sales to keep me occupied till DA2 GOTY is out.

  • arcam #23 1 year ago

    @glottis:

    It's not nonsense - I don't care if the game is 5 hours long or 50, just give me the whole game as it is without charging extra for additional small bits of content on release.
    Edited by arcam at 07/01/11 @ 15:45

  • glottis0 #24 1 year ago

    @arcam - but surely that's like going to a restaurant and saying they cooked the starter at the same time as the main meal so you should get it for free?

    hmm

    ...or maybe it's like them taking quarter of the main meal and serving it as a starter and charging another £6. Ok maybe I'm starting to see your point.

  • Spectral #25 1 year ago

    "The sense of entitlement gamers have gotten lately has been hilarious and pathetic."

    you mean as opposed to games publishers who think they should be uniquely entitled to revenue from 2nd hand sales? Part of the problem is that while most DLC is genuine a lot of publishers do take the piss. Costumes in fighting games,etc. In previous generations they have been in game unlocks. Now suddenly they are paid for extras

  • ryandsimmons #26 1 year ago

    5 Years ago you wouldn't be able to get away with this - but now with the advent of the ability to do this with fast internet connections its suddenly acceptable to make a game / split a chunk of it apart and say "this is DLC" and make you pay or jump through hoops to get it

    5 Years ago they would get away with it. They would just release it as an expansion pack.

    Also any DLC will have been decided upon at the very begining of the project. People don't release a game then go "Cool, lets now do DLC". Instead before they even start coding the main game they will have started discussions on DLC. All that Bioware are doing here that is different to everyone else is saying "Well we could make you wait 6 weeks between each DLC, but instead we'll release it while it is still fun and you can do it as part of the game rather than going back to an old game you are bored of and completed a month ago."

  • MrChuckles #27 1 year ago

    So, if you are one of the people who buys it when it comes out you get the full game. If you buy a second hand copy you don't, sounds fair enough to me...

    However, those who buy a full price copy but don't preorder sounds harsh.

    I'm all for taking money out of the high street's pockets tbh...

  • andywilkie35 #28 1 year ago

    Wait, this game is still over two months away and they're already announcing exactly what the DLC is?

    Fucking finish your games first you cunts!

  • ryandsimmons #29 1 year ago

    Oh, and with Bioware I don't mind if there is DLC at launch, it doesn detract from the main game and clearly hasn't affected the resources they have pumped into the main game. It's people like the New Vegas guys who should be ridiculed, I'd rather the effort they put into DLC rather be pumped into some QA for the main game.

  • m_brackley #30 1 year ago

    @ryandsimmons - what expansion pack 5 years ago would have come out the same time as the main game? I don't ever remember that!

    Appreciate DLC is planned in advanced and enjoyed the DLC for Mass effect which got me coming back to the game long after I'd completed it - Shadow Broker was a nice chunk of game and well worth the money but this habit of splitting off parts of the game which are ready at the start just seems wrong, quite suprised some people are more than happy with this!
    I'm a big bioware fan and love their games but can't agree with this concept!

  • ryandsimmons #31 1 year ago

    @ryandsimmons - what expansion pack 5 years ago would have come out the same time as the main game? I don't ever remember that!


    Sorry, to be clear the expansion wouldn't have come out at the same time, but likely would be more than a bit complete by that point. If you split the expansion into 5 (ie DLC) I wouldn't be surprised if enough assets would be completed at launch to make a comparable product.

    Nevertheless, I am not worried with Bioware DLC. I freely admit to being a fanboy, and I think £40* for a 30+ hour game plus some extra cash is reasonable when I am paying the same cash for a 6 hour shooter like Gears of War or something.

    *Or whatever you want to pay

  • Fillem #32 1 year ago

    I'm not going to pre-order this because I want to wait for the reviews for this one (especially since I want to try it on the PS3 in stead of the PC).
    I'm just wondering how many NPCs we'll run into with the quest:
    "I have a very important job for you...but first: GO TO THE EA WEBSHOP TO GET IT."
    "I will join you kind sir. GO TO THE EA WEBSHOP NOW."

  • ZuluHero #33 1 year ago

    I'm amazed people still have the attitude that the DLC was, in one form or another, actually in the game at some point and has been cut to milk more from the consumer.

    Publishers know that certain franchises sell well, and people will pay for it in droves as well. It's a bit of a no-brainer and it makes financial sense to splash a few extra thousand at a developer to create new content for the game. In 90% of cases DLC (even launch DLC) is asked for (and funded) separately from the main game and is totally new content, regardless of how closely you might think it fits with the main storyline and gives the impression of being cut.

    If that's what you think, then the team behind it has actually done their jobs well.

    In a few cases, it might be that content that was going to be cut anyway, due to lack of resources or time constraints, gets turned into DLC. But don't be under any illusion that this means that the content would have made it into the standalone game if the Publisher hadn't asked and paid more for it. If this didn't happen it was going to be cut regardless, and the end consumer would not have seen it anyway!

    It doesn't really matter if the DLC is disproportionate to the main game or or not either, didn't horse armour in Oblivion teach anyone anything? :)
    Edited by ZuluHero at 07/01/11 @ 16:43

  • Spectral #34 1 year ago

    The one's that particularly annoy me are when they sell cheats as DLC. They could and have in the past had item/level unlocks as simple button codes. Now they're all but gone and the things they offered charged for.

  • Inigo #35 1 year ago

    Not only are they forcing me to pre-order the game to get all the companions but they haven't put it on steam. I would have order it already (like the Witcher 2) if i could have bought it there.

    I think this stinks.

  • butler` #36 1 year ago

    this will eternally piss me off

    i really hope it fails commercially and this trend goes out of fashion

    the resources should go into the game itself first and foremost and, only then, when the game is gold, should they try and milk us with dlc

  • metalangel #37 1 year ago

    @ZuluHero: what about that NFS:HP DLC for three "racer" versions of cars that are only available as police cars in the main game? You cannot possibly deny the necessary data for those cars did not already exist when the game went gold.

  • hiddenranbir #38 1 year ago

    "No, what happened to my family was murder" he says without any emotion.

    I've always felt Bioware DLC makes little sense given the strong linear narrative to their game, especially when it is released post-launch and they're trying to sell it to someone that has already completed the story. To go back to play a side mission with an attempt to make some meaningful contribution to the main story, which I've already resolved, seems pointless. Compared with the dlc of fallout 3, which is able to integrate easily given the context of the game world which doesn't solely rely on a strong linear narrative.
    Edited by hiddenranbir at 07/01/11 @ 17:33

  • RevanNL #39 1 year ago

    AKA we've cut this shit from the main game because we need additional golden sinks in our office

  • Discalceaterabbit #40 1 year ago

    "...or maybe it's like them taking quarter of the main meal and serving it as a starter and charging another £6. Ok maybe I'm starting to see your point. "

    Nail.
    Head.
    Hit.

  • Shikasama #41 1 year ago

    It doesn't matter to me. After the ridiculous state of Dragon Age DLC I'd rather lop off a testacle than buy this at retail when its released.

  • GiarcYekrub #42 1 year ago

    Already preordered :)

  • GiarcYekrub #43 1 year ago

    Seriously though, I have no problem for bioware to charge £4.60 for 2 or 3 extra hours when Activision and Microsoft want to charge £40 for 7 hours of gameplay (Halo:Reach, Black Ops)

  • uknortherner2000 #44 1 year ago

    Those of you who argue that DLC is merely a modern equivalent of an expansion pack simply don't get it. Shivering Isles for Oblivion was a proper expansion pack - a new land, 30-40 hours of gameplay (at least) and loads of new assets. All for £20.

    What we have now is DLC that retails for similar prices (that Dragon Age one for PS3 was £31 FFS) that is little more than minor 1- or 2-hour side missions that add fuck all to the experience. Or shitty costume packs.

    Wake up people. You ARE being ripped off. Bioware don't give a crap about you as long as you fork over the cash - you only need to remember how they pissed all over their PC fan base during the Mass Effect DRM fiasco. I really don't get all this love for them at all.

    I have never bought DLC, and I never will. Nor will I be buying this piece of crap after the in-game advertising the first one had.
    Edited by uknortherner2000 at 08/01/11 @ 00:01

  • polaris70 #45 1 year ago

    Sorry EA, a step too far. I don't mind your 'project $10' if you want to get something back from second-hand sales. But ripping a peice of the game out just for people who pre-order is greed. You know most people on here who don't pre-order will buy this add-on, it's taking advantage of them. In this economic climate I don't know if I can afford a game in two months time..let alone pre-order one. Shame on you.

  • kaya08 #46 1 year ago

    "Seriously though, I have no problem for bioware to charge £4.60 for 2 or 3 extra hours when Activision and Microsoft want to charge £40 for 7 hours of gameplay (Halo:Reach, Black Ops) "

    I find this argument slightly absurd. If you're going to play Halo or whatever once and never touch it again, then rent it. It'll cost you a fiver.
    Personally I played through halo three times or so and enjoyed it each time, I'll probably play it a couple times more but its irrelevant regardless, quantity =/= quality.
    And lets face it the quality of the DA:o dlc was pretty low.
    Edited by kaya08 at 08/01/11 @ 04:40

  • ZuluHero #47 1 year ago

    @uknorthener2000

    Hmm... Shivering isles, £20, horse armour, £3? Even oblivion falls foul of the same practices ;)

    And what Dragon Age DLC cost £31 for 2 hours gameplay? I must have missed that one (even though I bought them all). It sounds awesome!

  • metalangel #48 1 year ago

    @brod: I am still waiting on a Mass Effect 2 complete edition. That is the only way I will ever buy it.

  • SomaticSense #49 1 year ago

    WTF?

    Are we really at the stage now where DLC is announced two months before the game's launch?

    Ridiculous.
    Edited by SomaticSense at 08/01/11 @ 12:48

  • SomaticSense #50 1 year ago

    RobotRocker wrote"Business realities, deal with it, nerds etc, etc."

    Erm, that doesn't excuse the fact they are announcing way before the game has even gone gold, let alone been released. Regardless of the reasons why DLC would be in development simultaeneous to the retail game, it's still a massive PR screwup to announce the DLC before the game's release, making the consumer feel ripped off regardless of whether they are or not.

    It's far better to keep the DLC behind the scenes until later. Have it run through QA during the 'going gold' and launch periods and release it after the game's launch (ala, how just about every other publisher does).

  • asphaltcowboy #51 1 year ago

    Just ordered Dragon Age Ultimate Edition, so it may be a while before I get this! ;)

  • uknortherner2000 #52 1 year ago

    @ZuluHero: "Hmm... Shivering isles, £20, horse armour, £3? Even oblivion falls foul of the same practices ;)

    And what Dragon Age DLC cost £31 for 2 hours gameplay? I must have missed that one (even though I bought them all). It sounds awesome! "

    Hmm... I blame the alcohol for that one!

    What I actually meant was there was an expansion for DA on PS3 for £31 (think it was cheaper on 360?), but I was taking pot shots at the fluff DLC that came out before it that offered little more than an extra couple of hours, but still required you to play through the whole game again (if you've completed it) and a bit of armour. Basically, the sort of stuff that should've been in the game from the start.

    Oh, and don't get me started on that horse armour! The only good side was the release of Knights of the Nine on disc that included a proper quest along side all the fluff Bethesda put out beforehand. Never bought KOTN though. Shivering Isles offered far better value for my money.

  • ExplodingClown #53 1 year ago

    Stupid, greedy, counterproductive, marketing disaster. This is the kind of gouging that makes one nostalgic for non-electronic entertainment. At least when I bought my Monopoly set I didn't get a letter included offering me a Chance card, free hotel on Mayfair and the Top Hat for an extra £5.