Dragon Age: Origins coming to consoles

By Robert Purchese Published 18 August, 2008

BioWare clears up any confusion.

BioWare has told Eurogamer that Dragon Age: Origins will definitely be heading to consoles, following a bit of confusion about the whole thing.

"Yes. Dragon Age: Origins will be coming to consoles in the near future, yes," Dan Tudge, director and executive producer for the game, told Eurogamer.

Tudge hinted that console versions of Origins will arrive in late 2009, after the PC release - which BioWare is confident will be early next year.

When pushed on dates and details, a BioWare PR stepped in to say "plans for consoles haven't been finalised yet".

Dragon Age will also definitely be a series, as you may have guessed.

"'Dragon Age: Origins' really represents three real key elements," said Tudge. "One is obviously the origins stories. The other is the return to BioWare's roots. And the other one is the origins of the franchise, of the series.

"We've built the universe from the ground-up to be something we can base a lot of entertainment product in, and Dragon Age: Origins is really just the beginning."

Dragon Age: Origins is a dark fantasy role-playing game self-described as a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate.

Head over to our E3 impressions of Dragon Age: Origins to find out more.

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.

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

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Comments (20) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • OnlyMe #1 4 years ago

    In before the "oh noes, dumbing down confirmed!".

  • Pike #2 4 years ago

    Oh no! Dumbing down confirmed!

  • Coughthulu #3 4 years ago

    Oh doh! Numbing clown deferred!

    I for one welcome our new Dragon Age overlords, and hope the conversion's good, cause I didn't want to have to beef the PC up. :)

  • hoof #4 4 years ago

    Comments deliver...

  • Quint2020 #5 4 years ago

    One less reason to upgrade my flagging PC, now if only they'd put Diablo III on to consoles as well.

  • Razorus #6 4 years ago

    So is "Origins" a prequel to regular Dragon Age or did they add the subtitle when I wasn't looking?

  • mkreku #7 4 years ago

    Oh great. Now we can look forward to "one button combat" in this game too. I mean, a console gamer wouldn't want to have to use TWO buttons in the same game! It might cause stress!

  • OnlyMe #8 4 years ago

    The name somehow tells me that this will be an "how it all began" affair.

  • JediMasterMalik #9 4 years ago

    I don't think they'll fuck the game up or dumb it down. They will for consoles of course, but the PC version will be the definitive one, and hopefully will remain as good as it could be for PC.

  • des #10 4 years ago

    Game is using UE3 so this was expected.
    It will run great on PC...

  • Orange #11 4 years ago

    The trailer, UI and gameplay footage have me worried, this is even worse news. Seems very bland and simplistic. I had such high hopes but looks like it could take a giant shit on the Baldur's Gate legacy.

  • UncleLou #12 4 years ago

    I don't know, this might be good news. If we assume for a moment that it will be a decent port to the 360, and people on the 360 will like it, it could mean a bit of a return of the more tactical stuff to PCs and consoles, as opposed to only the more action-based stuff like Mass Effect (as good as it is).

  • Nill #13 4 years ago

    Well, we all knew that it would be coming for consoles at some point in time, but I had expected it would be more of an afterthought than it appears to be.

    This probably means that they have been taking what's possible to do with a controller only into consideration when designing what is supposed to be an old-school PC sort of game.

    I'm hoping to God that it won't be, but I'm fully expecting generic, simplified console hybrid-RPG-trash now. Calling it a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate sets expectations very high and very specific - good luck with that!

  • Wyrm #14 4 years ago

    I don't see this as dumbing down. If it were a simultaneous release then maybe, but if the PC is getting it first, it's clearly being designed for the PC. The subsequent months before console release can then be used to remove all the stats and add a HUGE interface.

  • coomber #15 4 years ago

    "One less reason to upgrade my flagging PC, now if only they'd put Diablo III on to consoles as well."

    Amen to that! This is great news. The PC snobs can moan all they want...this game is going to be great.

  • sneetch #16 4 years ago

    I really don't see anything that makes me think they'll remove features that have already added in order to "dumb down" the game for consoles. Especially not control of multiple characters (not if they want us to consider it any sort of successor to Baldur's Gate).

    As for simplifying the mechanics; they are already simple, you have 4 characters with a quick slot bar per character. How hard would that be to replicate with a console controller (where your quick slot bar becomes a radial menu)?
    Edited by 1 at 18/08/08 @ 15:56

  • Mr_Dodger #17 4 years ago

    Will be getting the PC version for the toolset anyway.

  • Ryuken #18 4 years ago

    Aye, the toolset looks just as deep as the NWN one, I can't imagine someone trudging through that with a meager game pad. NWN pretty much got most of its appeal because of all the free fan modules (gonna be funny to see these not show up on Xbox Live knowing MS's stance on mods), too bad DA:o isn't going to provide multiplayer.

    "Game is using UE3 so this was expected."

    Nope, it's using Bio's own Eclipse engine, DA:o does use some of the same facial animation/dialogue techniques of Mass Effect but without the dumbed down "only express your feeling instead of making some more intelligent choices when choosing a reply"-kind of dialogue.

  • hiddenranbir #19 4 years ago

    Woo Generic Age franchise!

  • dryden555 #20 4 years ago

    The gameplay movie is interesting though. It appears like in KOTOR one can pause the game and make combat decisions.
    Edited by 1 at 19/08/08 @ 13:51