BioWare: Next Dragon Age Will Be Inspired By Skyrim

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By Kevin Parrish
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BioWare is checking Skyrim out aggressively, says CEO Dr. Ray Muzyka.

BioWare CEO and co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka told Wired on Tuesday that the next Dragon Age title will likely draw inspiration from Bethesda's current RPG monster, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, in addition to both of its predecessors. He also admitted that the company is listening to its fans with open ears while also learning from the strengths and weaknesses of other RPG titles on the market.

"[The next Dragon Age] is gonna have the best of features from the prior Dragon Age games, but it’s also gonna have a lot of things I think players are gonna find compelling from some of the games that are out now that are doing really well with more of an open world feel," Muzyka said. "We’re checking [Skyrim] out aggressively. We like it. We’re big admirers of [Bethesda] and the product. We think we can do some wonderful things."

Bethesda launched Skyrim on November 11 which has thus far sold around 10 million units across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC platforms, representing approximately $650 million in retail sales. The PC version of Skyrim has even outsold all other PC games by over three to one in the first month of its release. For that reason alone, it's no wonder BioWare is eying Bethesda's blockbuster RPG with "aggressive," inquiring eyes.

"Skyrim is the fastest selling title in Steam's history," said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve Corporation. "Bethesda’s commitment to and understanding of the PC as a gaming platform shows in the great review scores, spectacular launch, and continued high player numbers that Skyrim has received. We are delighted that Bethesda chose to use Steamworks to support Skyrim both at retail and digitally."

One of the complaints that will likely be addressed with the next Dragon Age title is the ability to equip party members, a feature that Dragon Age II severely lacked. There's also talk that the next game will have a possible multiplayer mode featuring playable dragons. Muzyka confirmed the former report, but wouldn't acknowledge the multiplayer aspect.

"Our goal is to surprise and delight our fans," Muzyka said. "I’ve seen something in the last couple of weeks that is really the future of that franchise that is so compelling, I am so looking forward to being able to announce it."

Tease. To read the full interview, head here.

Kevin Parrish
57 Comments Comment from the forums
  • alikum
    Yea ... yea ... Until you took an arrow in the knee
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    alikumYea ... yea ... Until you took an arrow in the knee
    LOL! This meme is getting out of hand :lol:

    You know what's your problem, BioWare? You tried to mix story-driven and open-exploration RPG. You FAILED. Stick to one. DAO is better than DA2, but I can't get myself to finish even that, while I can't stop playing Skyrim! Witcher 2 also taught you a good lesson, I hope.

    Next time market less, develop more. Look at yourself, you're PATHETIC! Talking about all these T-shirts and character models all the time instead of making a good game... did Bethesda do that? Not really. They've b!tched about how bad PC development is a great deal, sure, but they gave us a beautiful, engaging game. What have YOU given us with DA2? ... that's right, an epic fail.

    I should go - before I take an arrow in the knee.

    P.S. Still, I think that taking acrobatics and levitation out of Skyrim was a bad move :pfff: It was awesome jumping around in Morrowind... I miss it.
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    There's also talk that the next game will have a possible multiplayer mode featuring playable dragons.

    ... idiots.

    Does Skyrim have MP with dragons?

    No. That's not why it sells. You think that just slapping MP onto a previously successful franchise helps? You can pull that off with Mass Effect, but only because thousands of fans like me are waiting for the SP conclusion. We wouldn't buy it for MP.

    Oh, btw, your graphics sucked, too, BioWare. TW2 and TES5 both pulled it off much better than you did - one because they targeted PC and another because... hell, I dunno, it's Bethesda, they're almighty and can make decent graphics even though they complain a lot ;) You, on the other hand, are a bunch of market-hyped show-offs.

    If anyone is tracking BioWare news, they will know that the BioWare team consists of Apple and Xbox fanboys. What can you expect from them? I'm surprised Mass Effect is as awesome as it is with such a team!
    Reply
  • zanny
    Heres my rant on the matter.

    Baldurs gate 1 + 2 were the best rpgs ever. They beat aynthing bioware has made since, and beat all TES games in story. The plots were complex, the twists were great, there were some side quests, but most importantly, it was challenging, dynamic, not black and white, deep, and offered some of the best coop rpg play ever.

    Since then, Bioware has moved away from what made them great. They stopped making coop campaigns after neverwinter nights (which was almost as great as baldurs gate, except the story wasnt as epic, and the graphics were poor for the time), they stopped having dynamic stories with dragon age / mass effect, they made KOTOR and Jade Empire in between, which just shows the progressive fall from grace:

    From Baldurs Gate / NWN (DND) -> Jade Empire / KOTOR -> Mass Effect / Dragon Age. All along this path, they lose complexity, story depth, mutliplayer, and gain more voice overs, slightly better graphics, and more action based combat. See the trend?

    And dragon age 2 was a corner case. It was grossly rushed and had no environments or characters, it was the biggest cop out in terms of art ever seen. That was the problem. The story was actually interesting, running around the exact same city for 30 hours was not.
    Reply
  • zanny
    Heres a nice sound bite for the TLDRs:

    DA3 should be inspired by Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter Nights, like DA1 was supposed to be. Thats what Bioware does right. Or did right. They seem to have lost their way after being consumed by EA, or maybe by greed, I dont know which, but whatever it is, they have lost their magic.
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    9336168 said:
    Heres a nice sound bite for the TLDRs:

    DA3 should be inspired by Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter Nights, like DA1 was supposed to be. Thats what Bioware does right. Or did right. They seem to have lost their way after being consumed by EA, or maybe by greed, I dont know which, but whatever it is, they have lost their magic.

    I don't fully agree... BG was great, so was NWN, but I also loved KOTOR (though it was a bit too slow on the traveling part at times) and Mass Effect is just a different type of game altogether, it's more of a story-driven TPS with RPG elements and it's great when you don't try to push some "genre" and its limits onto it. Dragon Age is a good game but way too tedious compared to, say again, Witcher 2 - and that complexity kills the gameplay completely (at least for me). I don't mind adjusting equipment and thoroughly checking every ability and skill in a d20 game, but it was rather annoying in DA context.

    Skyrim went a bit overkill on it, taking out Strength/Stamina/Dexterity/Speed/Personality/Willpower/Intelligence/Luck and replacing it with Health/Stamina/Magicka... it's almost ridiculous killing of the franchise-defining elements like that, but the funny thing is, it doesn't really affect much at all, since they tied everything to skills instead.

    What BioWare needs to do in my opinion is STFU about Kinect, multiplayer and other gimmicks and concentrate on a new good story-driven franchise (leave ME the hell alone, you already got a SW-based MMO to milk for cash). Mass Effect was awesome exactly because of characters and voiceover, they nailed it there and they should keep it up, but please don't talk bull about multiplayer - leave that to military FPS, racing and RTS genres.
    Reply
  • moosehawk
    #1 advice they could take is to not force their customers to use Origin.
    Reply
  • airborne11b
    Oblivion / marrowinds leveling + stat point system was horrible. Skyrim does character development correctly. Everyone hated Oblivion's level system, and the devs actually listened and came up with a much better system. Yet you say it's ridiculous? Ya I agree, it is ridiculous that a group of developers listened to their fan base.... lol.

    I didn't think DA2 or DAO were "Bad" games, they just weren't sandbox RPGs, they were story driven and linear. Skyrim imo is a better game, but to call Dragon Age a fail is a pretty big statement to make. It's like comparing Battlefield to Quake. Both games are good, but they provide a different type of experience.

    And to all the nay-sayers on TES multiplayer capabilities. Many people feel that multiplayer is the one thing lacking from TES games. It's a great single player game, and there is nothing wrong with single player, but understand that some people would love to play with a friend in one of their favorite franchises. I see nothing wrong with making it an option. No one is forcing anyone to play MP, just some fans want to explore TES universe with a buddy.
    Reply
  • amk-aka-Phantom
    9336172 said:
    Oblivion / marrowinds leveling + stat point system was horrible. Skyrim does character development correctly. Everyone hated Oblivion's level system, and the devs actually listened and came up with a much better system. Yet you say it's ridiculous? Ya I agree, it is ridiculous that a group of developers listened to their fan base.... lol.

    I didn't think DA2 or DAO were "Bad" games, they just weren't sandbox RPGs, they were story driven and linear. Skyrim imo is a better game, but to call Dragon Age a fail is a pretty big statement to make. It's like comparing Battlefield to Quake. Both games are good, but they provide a different type of experience.

    And to all the nay-sayers on TES multiplayer capabilities. Many people feel that multiplayer is the one thing lacking from TES games. It's a great single player game, and there is nothing wrong with single player, but understand that some people would love to play with a friend in one of their favorite franchises. I see nothing wrong with making it an option. No one is forcing anyone to play MP, just some fans want to explore TES universe with a buddy.

    Skyrim leveling system is fine, it's just that Morrowind one was superior - I won't discuss Oblivion here, I couldn't stand more than 4 hours of it.

    DAO and DA2 are definitely not bad games, surely better than most of the $h!t released today. It's just that the could've been better... and DAO is more character- than story-driven, IMO. Feel the difference.

    Nothing wrong with MP, either! I personally think it'd be great fun - but don't pretend like it's a selling point for a game like TES, ME or DA... that's all I'm asking.
    Reply
  • rohitbaran
    Bioware, you know what, it would be actually fine if you just took the cues from your own old RPGs. It is good to take lessons from other developers' games but IMO, the prime reason that DA 2 failed was because it didn't give its fans what its predecessor gave them: A rich experience filled with several characters and places to visit covered by an overarching good story.
    Reply