What to Expect From BioWare in 2024

BioWare has had a quiet few years since the release of its last game, Anthem, in 2019. An exciting year is on the horizon for BioWare in 2024, and the developer is on track to deliver news to players from both its popular IPs: Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Both series’ have had games in development for a while now, with Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in particular due for a significant information drop.

BioWare has promised a full reveal for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf in Summer 2024, including new trailers, gameplay, and a release date.

What to expect for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf:

• At least one new trailer.
• At least one gameplay video.
• A release date.
• Character and story information.
• Possible Q3 or Q4 game release.

What to expect for Mass Effect:

• A short teaser drop on N7 Day.
• An update in the form of a blog post.
• A new image.

News For Dragon Age: Dreadwolf Will Finally Drop

Dragon Age Day Gives Announcements

December 4th has become the unofficial Dragon Age Day for fans of the series, and BioWare has jumped on the bandwagon in recent years to use the day as an opportunity to drop trailers and updates on the Dragon Age series as a whole. With minimal updates on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf beyond a few teaser trailers in recent years, fans were anticipating news to drop on Dragon Age Day 2023. BioWare did release a trailer, but rather than any significant information, it announced that a full reveal for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf would be shared in Summer 2024.

Dragon Age Day 2023 Gave a New Timeline For Fans

As the Video Game Awards took place just days after Dragon Age Day, the announcement that there would only be an update in Summer 2024 served to curb expectations that BioWare would have a presence at the event. While learning Dragon Age: Dreadwolf wouldn’t make an appearance at The Game Awards was disappointing for many, players who have been waiting since 2015 for an update on Dragon Age finally have a timeline for when they can expect real news for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. The Summer 2024 reveal promises to include a trailer, character reveals, gameplay footage, and a release date reveal.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf May Release Around Christmas 2024

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf Could Be Headed For a Q4 Release

While there is still no revealed window for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, a slip-up from a BioWare developer may have revealed the release date as sometime after April 2024. The release date for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf might finally be revealed during the Summer 2024 news cycle, in which case it might be headed for a Q4 release date, around Christmas or thereabouts.

A 2025 Release for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is Unlikely

While it is still possible that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf may still see a 2025 release, that would be a worst-case scenario and would be unlikely for several reasons. Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has already been in Alpha for over a year, with a post on BioWare’s official blog in October 2022 announcing the milestone. Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s Alpha was announced in May 2014, just six months before its release. While BioWare is taking more time with Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, possibly to avoid the mistakes of Anthem and to avoid crunch, it’s unlikely that development will take another year.

Studios Are Adopting Shorter Marketing Campaigns

A long development phase after a significant marketing campaign in Summer 2024 is especially unlikely. Rather than announcing news and information early in the development process, it’s recently become more standard to have a shorter, harder-hitting marketing cycle closer to video game release dates, with BioWare advisor Mark Darrah commenting in a stream on The Game Awards 2022 that “there’s been a move towards shorter marketing cycles.” This removes expectations for features that need to be cut in the final product and keeps hype at a high without needing a years-long, sustained campaign.

As such, with a significant news drop happening in Summer 2024, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf‘s release date shouldn’t be too far behind. Players can probably expect the game’s release date to fall within six months of Summer 2024.

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Don’t Expect Mass Effect News Any Time Soon

BioWare’s other property, Mass Effect, also should see some updates that longtime fans will be waiting on. While anything too exciting shouldn’t be expected from BioWare regarding Mass Effect until Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is out, BioWare won’t leave the world to forget that there’s a new Mass Effect game in development.

Mass Effect Day May Have an Update

Like Dragon Age, Mass Effect has its own dedicated day in the fandom. Mass Effect Day, or N7 Day, is on November 7, and BioWare has taken the opportunity to make announcements and release trailers and official art for the occasion. In recent years, BioWare has been releasing information related to the next Mass Effect game, with an announcement trailer and small updates. N7 Day 2023 saw the release of a 35-second teaser, depicting a character wearing an N7 trenchcoat and full helmet, walking through what appears to be a warehouse.

Dragon Age Needs to be Released Before More Mass Effect News

Any updates in 2024 will likely be similar to updates in previous years, and will likely only be dropped on N7 Day as in previous years. As in previous N7 Day announcements, there will likely be a short video with some footage not necessarily representing final gameplay, an image, and a blog post with an update. N7 Day will coincide with the likely release date of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, and BioWare probably won’t want to draw attention away from its release with news from its other IP and could postpone any significant updates to 2025.