Mark Laidlaw Hints at a “Reboot” for Dragon Age 4

In an interview with USgamer, the former Dragon Age head suggested Bioware began creating Dragon Age 4 with a skeleton crew.

Dragon Age fans are eagerly awaiting the fantasy RPG series’ next installment, and while it won’t launch before Anthem, Mike Laidlaw used the term “reboot” to describe the project.

But don’t take the phrase too literally, he stressed.

The news comes from an interview with USgamer, in which the former Dragon Age creative director opened up about his final days at Bioware. Laidlaw told USgamer that he “wanted to try a new challenge,” and that the time was simply right to leave the company.

“I was going to have a very small skeleton crew, and I’m lucky because Patrick Weekes is an exceptional lead writer, Daniel Kading is an exception lead designer,” Laidlaw said to USgamer. “There were two very veteran designers who could hold a vision, and it was going to move down to a very small team.”

Laidlaw concluded leaving while the game had a small team “the least disruptive time,” and he departed from the company last October. His description suggests Bioware assigned a small team to Dragon Age 4 while the rest of the studio is hard at work on Anthem, which has been reportedly delayed to 2019.

He also said he’s heard the term “reboot” attached to Dragon Age 4, but he thinks the upcoming game isn’t a literal reconstruction of the series.

“Very likely they went through a redesign phase, that’s pretty normal,” Laidlaw told USgamer. “And I’ve heard reboot, but I’m not sure what that means contextually. I would find it unlikely to be a new Star Trek kind of thing. It’s more likely that the existing plans will be re-examined in light of existing leadership.”

For the time being, fans aren’t sure where Dragon Age 4 is headed, but there are a few hints about the game’s development floating around. Casey Hudson, Bioware’s general manager, explained that the game will still be “story and character focused” and will most likely be designed with “live” features that allow for “continued storytelling after the main story.” Whatever that looks like, Dragon Age fans will have to wait for an official reveal to learn more.

H/T USgamer