Dragon Age 3? "There are always ideas"

By Robert Purchese Published 11 March, 2011

Multiplayer "absolutely would" work.

Forget Dragon Age II, what about Dragon Age 3 - has BioWare started work on that?

"I'll say there are always ideas, certainly - there's definitely a direction that the franchise has," DAII lead designer Mike Laidlaw told Eurogamer.

"Frankly, Dragon Age II gives Dragon Age a direction in a much, much stronger way than Origins, which largely concluded on the note of, 'Yay, we won! What next?' Whereas Dragon Age II does present a place for us to go and evolve in a fundamental change to the world that I think is going make Dragon Age as a whole more exciting.

"But what comes next is always for us to look at and announce as time comes by." He reiterated: "We can never confirm or deny any sequels until the announcement."

What of the character Hawke, the star of Dragon Age II - can he go on to star in Dragon Age 3?

"It really depends," said Laidlaw. "Certainly we have ideas for him as a character, but where we go from here right now is mainly focused on DLC and for new expansions and new adventures, new additions to his story."

"... multiplayer is something that's a huge undertaking ..."

Mike Laidlaw, lead designer of Dragon Age II

One missing ingredient of BioWare's Dragon Age and Mass Effect series has been any form of multiplayer. But Laidlaw's enthusiasm suggests this may not be the case for long.

"Just from a fundamental idea: [multiplayer] absolutely would [work]," he said. "A big part of that is going back to fundamentals of the Dragon Age series and that sense of team; that we are stronger together than we are divided, which is in many ways a story theme through DA2.

"Any time you have a game that is aware of the advantages of teamwork, what it's like when multiple classes combine their abilities, be it a rogue not just stunning enemies but helping to conceal his friends so that they can take damage better - that's where you do an allegory that says yeah, we could do multiplayer here for sure.

"I do think the changes made to Dragon Age II in terms of responsiveness are going to be things that could translate better into multiplayer than Origins, which had that inherent delay between what I was ordering and what was happening. It's certainly laying an interesting groundwork.

"Long-term that's something we have to consider," he added, "because obviously multiplayer is something that's a huge undertaking, it presents technical difficulty. And frankly it's something that if done, has to be done really well, otherwise it feels very tacked on. So we'll have to make any decision about that within that context."

Dragon Age II goes on sale today. What did Eurogamer think? "Absolutely" a "satisfying epic" and one that builds to "one of the more interesting climaxes in recent memory" - 8/10.

What does BioWare think of the reaction to Dragon Age II? Eurogamer asked the hard questions this morning.

Hours-in Dragon Age II gameplay captured by Eurogamer.

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 (43) Latest comment 9 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • AbracadaverAK #1 1 year ago

    Whoa! Slow it down, Bioware! You're supposed to announce 10 or 20 DLC packs before talking about another sequel.

  • StolenGlory #2 1 year ago

    "Multiplayer "absolutely would" work."

    It fucking absolutely would not.

  • geeza2020 #3 1 year ago

    I'd concentrate on making sure people enjoy the single player before adding vomit inducing multiplayer to the mix.

  • Lexx87 #4 1 year ago

    Co-op....maybe.

    'Multiplayer' can fuck off.

  • Toothball #5 1 year ago

    "I'll say there are always ideas, certainly"

    These days there are always sequels, certainly.

  • sarcasmoidosis #6 1 year ago

    Multiplayer does not necessarily mean versus. Coop is MP also.

  • geordiek #7 1 year ago

    Here's a bold and crazy idea. Make it an RPG.

  • Desheep #8 1 year ago

    "Absolutely" a "satisfying epic"

    Woah, what a compliment!

    "This game is 100% pretty OK!"

  • ExplodingClown #9 1 year ago

    "Forget Dragon Age II, what about Dragon Age 3?"

    Forget Dragon Age 3, what about Jade Empire 2?

  • ZizouFC #10 1 year ago

    Not necessary.

  • NewbieZilla #11 1 year ago

    Keep multiplayer the fuck away from RPGs. This is an example of dumbing down if there ever was one.

  • RoOhDaMite #12 1 year ago

    "Forget Dragon Age II" - period.

  • ExplodingClown #13 1 year ago

    "One missing ingredient of BioWare's Dragon Age and Mass Effect series has been any form of multiplayer".

    Eh? Missing ingredient? The last curry I made didn't have any raspberry trifle in it, but I didn't feel it was somehow lacking.

    If you like multiplayer, you play MMORPGs. I guess everyone wants to dip their bucket in Blizzard's cash-filled swimming pools though. BW would be better off stepping back and thinking about what's gone wrong and maybe learning some lessons.

  • the_dudefather #14 1 year ago

    Ok, you know all that leveling shit you have to do, take that out, make it so you character is totally awesome and rad from the start, and you can make enemies explode by headbutting them (there are also more enemies to fight, but they tend to fall over and die once they run into you because you are filled with so much attitude and bad-assery it's poisonous to them) , every other character is a damsel with a huge rack who gets moist as you approach

    Then for multiplayer you could have team deathmatch, capture the flag and a couple of other modes, have the usual perks, weapon unlocks and AK47 variants

  • bikmate #15 1 year ago

    F#ck multiplayer.

  • geeza2020 #16 1 year ago

    @the_dudefather - and the main character should be called something totally awesome like "xxXSN1P3R-ELITEXxx" just to make it as down with the kids as possible. And there should be bullet-time too.

  • Murton #17 1 year ago

    "Keep multiplayer the fuck away from RPGs. This is an example of dumbing down if there ever was one."

    Two words: Neverwinter Nights.

    I don't see any reason why a party-base RPG can't have co-op, if you can then please explain it to the rest of us.

  • Markusdragon #18 1 year ago

    Always ideas? I have an idea; how about a Jade Empire 2, dammit!

  • Vin #19 1 year ago

    Stop pissing around and give a KOTOR game that ISN'T a damn MMO.

    Kthx.

  • Huddy #20 1 year ago

    DA3: Mythical Warfare.

  • arcam #21 1 year ago

    I don't see any reason why a party-base RPG can't have co-op, if you can then please explain it to the rest of us

    Because you spend 50% of your time in conversations, picking responses. Who picks? What does the other player do?

  • M_of_the_sys #22 1 year ago

    It would fit the trend so far. Multiplayer with kill streaks and zombie mode.

  • michaelius #23 1 year ago

    Press the button and twice the amount of awesome happens ;)

  • Abscido #24 1 year ago

    Keep multiplayer the fuck away from RPGs. This is an example of dumbing down if there ever was one.

    I understand what you mean by this, but the irony is delightful all the same. Western RPGs were spawned by and are indebted to pen-and-paper role-playing. Which itself was an entirely social, multiplayer experience.

    If you trace the history of western RPGs, you'll see they basically took what was a social experience in pen-and-paper gameplay and made it work for solo players. So instead of having a dungeon master player (for scenarios and rules) and having other players control a character each, on a computer someone could control each party member himself and the computer would be the 'dungeon master'.

    After a while, story and scenario became more prevalent, with the RPG mechanics (eventually) becoming less and less evident, to the point where the numbers were hidden behind better interfaces, easy to digest character classes and so forth.

    These days to define an 'RPG' is impossible, but I guess World of Warcraft is the closest to the original concept.

  • Stop-gap #25 1 year ago

    "One missing ingredient of BioWare's Dragon Age and Mass Effect series has been any form of multiplayer."
    Oh no, please stop right there. MP can work in RPGs, I know, but just slapping it in there because it is "missing" is wrong.

  • defdaz #26 1 year ago

    DA III? How about DA:o 2 instead please? Or Baldur's Gate 3, not fussy.

  • darc #27 1 year ago

    "Frankly, Dragon Age II gives Dragon Age a direction in a much, much stronger way than Origins..."

    Oh god no.

    Ah well, another $60 and 20+ hours saved.

  • SvennoJ #28 1 year ago

    Why not make DA3 a proper single player rpg with combat more in the style of Baldur's gate AND make a new co-op Baldur's gate dark alliance game. I'll play both. But somehow the marriage of the two that DA2 is, is less then the sum of its parts.

  • Gunship #29 1 year ago

    Story - make it like a soap opera, so there is never a 'yay we won" moment, just a cliffhanger taking you to the next dlc or sequel.

    Make it more aerodynamic - just warrior or mage. No inventory, just omni-herb that you can use to either heal wounds or upgrade swords.

    Romances - bigger boobz, and sex with nugs, hallas and Hurlocks (preferably all at the same time)

  • TwitchyMcTwitch #30 1 year ago

    It's a RPG shooter....

    What shooter can't do multiplayer?

  • Me! #31 1 year ago

    It would be awesome to make a story about war between Templars and Mages [Put Anders as leader of Mages] in DA3, more gore and leave same combat mechanics from DA2 [Mages are far more better in DA2 than DAO] or make it even better..
    But for now, DLC packs please!!! :)

  • Kesmai #32 1 year ago

    Multiplayer can work fine in Dragon Age, just not in a massive multiplayer way. A four player Coop story mode would be ideal. And as for dialogue and decision making, look at what Bioware is doing in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Every member of the group can make a reply/decision at a dialogue through a roll. So that wont be an issue. But yea, multiplayer in a wider sense or stuff like Versus, Team Deathmatch or what ever the hell Call of Duty modes,would be a complete fail.

    Then again, bring back the good old 200 hours long RPG single player experience of the older Bioware RPGs like Baldur's Gate, and then start thinking about Multiplayer. Running around in the same copy-pasted cellar or cave for the 20th time is not what i would call an epic RPG experience.

  • talentedtoejam #33 1 year ago

    I personally think mp would ruin the experience. If I wanted to run around with my friends and kill things I would play WoW (or something like it). I don't. I enjoy spending alone time with my chars, romancing the hot guy at camp, and telling the emo kid to stop crying. Perhaps Bioware, as others have said before, needs to take a step back and breathe. I was sorely dissapointed with DA2; it was short, not as flushed out as I would have liked, and the chars didn't seem to grab me like the ones from DA:o. Let's go back to the basics guys.

  • Madgormley #34 1 year ago

    don´t care what they do i just want them to continue with hawke and i would like to retain some of the companions especially varic and isabela they are good characters and it would be a real shame if they didn´t let you keep them as companions for the up coming DLCS and 3rd when the time comes

  • Efef #35 1 year ago

    I don't want Hawk in DA3. Too many bad memories (DA2) playing that character.

  • Efef #36 1 year ago

    DA III? How about DA:o 2 instead please? Or Baldur's Gate 3, not fussy.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Yeah, feel free to make sequel to DA2, but let other studio make sequel to DAO. Not everyone appreciate sequels that are shallow and action oriented.
    Edited by Efef at 12/04/11 @ 18:36

  • snookie85 #37 1 year ago

    I think Dragon Age 3 should start off trying to find the Grey Warden and Champion that misteriously disappeared (main characters) and something about why is Leliana trying to find them and I think it should stay as an RPG game and quit trying to fuck it up with Multiplayer. Keep making it as you have been and you should do fucking awesome.

  • LedAl #38 1 year ago

    FUCKING SUDES!!! you think you know the lot when you know fuck all
    '"Multiplayer "absolutely would" work."

    It fucking absolutely would not. '
    ''Multiplayer' can fuck off.'
    'Keep multiplayer the fuck away from RPGs. This is an example of dumbing down if there ever was one.'

    multilayer doesn't exactly mean 3 billion people playing on the same server. I think what bioware mean here by 'multilayer' is playing the game with 1-3 of your friends (so its a full party) and... hmm maybe, play the game as normal? I know it's a long shot but maybe think of a game as a 'game' not the fucking bible. a game is something to be enjoyed not treated as idols
    and what difference does it make if some of us with friends what to play the game with friends? if the option is there and you don't want to take it, nobody's putting a gun to your head and telling you to use it.

    also, what's wrong with DA2? fine its shorter then the first one... but its way better written and it doesn't go with the whole cliché "SAVE THE UNIVERSE!" shit we're getting shoved down our necks these days.

  • lmo2011ta #39 12 months ago

    What I would like to know is if they're planning on ever reincorporating the character from Dragon Age: Origins? My opinion is that THAT character and Hawke should tie-in together somehow.

  • garrett94 #40 10 months ago

    let you pick your own race again don't make it mandatory for you to be a human make dwarf elf and human like it was in origins or even maybe another race like troll or druid or something cool and new. let all your races wield every weapon they want to and wear any Armour let you change you team mates Armour and weapons. multiplayer is a horrible idea in this kind of game don't do it. keep it so you have to level up some people like the challenge of it and if you don't want to people always find cheats that make it quick to level up. a broader selection of weapons for mages not always just some staff make a sword staff or something interesting. new puzzles of course so you can find the best Armour and weapons. co-op could be fun if it was made split screen because sharing a screen with people just sucks. in dark alliance the way multiplayer was was just amazing. also you should be able to get i different pet other than the war hound. and riding horses would be nice and also sprinting, becoming a dragon rider i think is also a great idea

  • garrett94 #41 10 months ago

    let you pick your own race again don't make it mandatory for you to be a human make dwarf elf and human like it was in origins or even maybe another race like troll or druid or something cool and new. let all your races wield every weapon they want to and wear any Armour let you change you team mates Armour and weapons. multiplayer is a horrible idea in this kind of game don't do it. keep it so you have to level up some people like the challenge of it and if you don't want to people always find cheats that make it quick to level up. a broader selection of weapons for mages not always just some staff make a sword staff or something interesting. new puzzles of course so you can find the best Armour and weapons. co-op could be fun if it was made split screen because sharing a screen with people just sucks. in dark alliance the way multiplayer was was just amazing. also you should be able to get i different pet other than the war hound. and riding horses would be nice and also sprinting, becoming a dragon rider i think is also a great idea

  • beul69 #42 10 months ago

    i now some peopele and they where also talking about that multiplayer and how nice it would be if you could build an empire among other peopele and friends and fight against continual hordes of demons and other enemies
    Edited by beul69 at 31/07/11 @ 20:29

  • tencutty #43 9 months ago

    Hmmm Multiplayer. No. Is this why they added Sir Issac's Armor? to have an online battle royal like Dead Space . Not too bad of an idea considering the DLC from Origins as Darkspawn. but please, you have already kicked our teeth in enough. DA2 had me disturbed form the get go just by the sheer image of the Qunari. They looked like Ronald Mc Donald with Horns. My Fave character was Sten and they just goobered that altogether. With the subtle hints of Orlais being focal in 3 ( Bodain and Sandal leaving) its obvious that will happen . As far as DLC's go i think Legacy was a knee jerk shove the crap back into the horse solution, but quite fun to play. I found myself thinking" why didn't this happen firstly when Hawke/sibling ventured for the will?"You start this off AFTER you lose your sibling in deep roads/wardens. just messy continuity altogether, as like in the disappointing Witch Hunt.