When Will DA4 be released?/ Bioware's release strategy.

I think DA4 will release by the end of March 2019 and my reasoning involves a bit of game developers musical chairs.

Trespasser was released in September 2015, a few weeks later Mike Laidlaw mentioned on twitter that they still didn't get a green light to start DA4 production but told us not to worry, that was a year and a half ago and I think it's safe to say they probably started production since, likely around the time Mark Darrah tweeted the picture of the red book which I believe was in January 2016.

Now wait you say, most of the devs are working on MEA and the Secret IP! How would the game get done on time? Well this is where the musical chairs bit comes in. Let's go over the facts, we know from Laidlaw that the majority of the DA team are working on other projects, 2/3rds are helping the Montreal team finish MEA and 1/3rd are on the Secret IP, keep in mind the "majority" could mean anything between everyone but the leads to just over 51%, though it's most likely the former. I believe once MEA goes gold, which should be by the end of the week, the majority of the Montreal team will move on to the Secret IP while most if not all of the 2/3rds will return to DA. A year later the Secret IP is released, the majority of the Montreal team will return to what should be the start of the second year of MEA2 production, while the 1/3rd returns to DA4 which should be entering it's final year of production.

I think you're stretching the definition of "production". Per Hrugr's earlier posts, DA4 is very likely only in pre-production, but that doesn't give us any sense for when it will be done or even when full production will start, and it doesn't need a whole lot of people, looks like mainly the writers from what we've seen. Maybe a handful of engine coders adding support for better hair meshes/animations to the engine -- Laidlaw has acknowledged that area needs improvement more than once, and we know that Frostbite was the limiting factor for hair in DAI.

I think you are also underestimating how much of the combined dev team will be assigned to Secret IP in full production. It's probably 2/3 to Secret IP, 1/3 to DA4. The 1/3 might not even happen for another 6 months and it's all hands on deck for Secret IP. That would make sense for a 1.0 release, since their ability to estimate won't be as accurate as for the Nth iteration of a franchise.

Of course, what do I know? Your guess is a good as mine, as long as you are following the twitter thread and seeing the same data I am.

2019, after new ip.

I'm hoping for early 2019 I guess. That's a long time between games, especially one ending on a cliffhanger. I thought the Secret IP would make the wait easier but sounds like that is MP and "not an RPG". So now I really don't want to wait that long. MEA will help somewhat but I've always liked the DA series better.

Guessing from what we've heard on the production state so far - which is nothing - I'll assume its release will be in H2 2020 at the earliest. They have Mass Effect this year, the new IP next (although it's likely it'll get pushed back a year as it's always been)... even when they start development right now it will (or should) take about 3 years, if not more.

My guess is 2021, but as that's not on the poll, I voted H2 2020.

An optimistic thought:

It could be that the secret IP will turn out to be much more complete than we think and the March 2018 release date has more to do with EA's plan to stagger Bioware's releases than the completeness of the game, which would mean a lot more people will be freed up to work on Dragon Age sooner than expected.

I voted 2nd half of 2018 but that is me being optimistic. 2019 is more likely.

The new IP is most likely the cause of the delay in DA4. It's not an Rpg, but a co op game. Not my thing, and I'm bummed it took needed resources away from Bioware's two flagship titles. MEA is loaded with trouble and more attention to details would have been really helpful. And 2020 is very likely the earliest we will see on DA4. Just my opinion, though. What's all your thoughts about the secret IP?

That's a Friday. Did everyone adopt Nintendo's Friday releases instead of the western Tuesday releases in the Future? I for one would be happy, I can stop having sick days on Tuesdays and instead have 3-day weekends

How's my goldfish?

So, sometimes a Dev posts and I want to dance and be all happy they're interacting with us. And be encouraging of it more, like the wee fangirl I am.

Then I'm like. *squint* that's too much. May frighten them. Don't bring attention to them and leave them to their peaceful forum experience.

I compromise between the two and give them a like. Does that make me weird? I think it does.

if it releases in late 2018 they would have had a 4 years of development. Where did you get the 2 year dev time? They started their next project just after they launched DAI, theres no grace period just to work on dlc and patches - they make a team to start pre-dev.