Former Sunless Sea writer confirms that a new Dragon Age is in the works

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It wasn't really a secret, but the word is official now. Sort of.

That a new Dragon Age is in the works at BioWare isn't quite as sure a thing as it was prior to EA's recent decision to put the Mass Effect series on hold following the tepid response to ME: Andromeda. But even though it hasn't been officially confirmed yet, writer Alexis Kennedy—whose previous credits include the narrative-heavy Tales of Fallen London and Sunless Sea—recently confirmed to Eurogamer that the project is happening. 

Kennedy has also worked on DLC for Stellaris and released a game of his own called Cultist Simulator, but "there are huge differences between all of that and what I'm working on at BioWare," he said. "Which I can now legitimately say is in the Dragon Age franchise, although it has been known for awhile. Notionally it was a secret but, because of who I was working with, everyone who cared knew. And then the day I started, Mark Darrah tweeted saying 'welcome to the Dragon Age franchise', so I thought, well, I guess that's official now then."  

He didn't reveal anything about the game, or get into specifics about his role, but said he's "been given considerable autonomy to work on a storyline bit of lore which is well-segregated from other parts of the game, which makes a lot of sense with me being remote," a reference to the fact that he's based in the UK, while the team he's working with is in Edmonton, multiple time zones distant. "And yes, if you've seen a lot of my work before you will probably not be surprised by the choice of subject matter. It's familiar stuff." 

Something with a steampunk edge, then—or perhaps just nautical? I'm thinking the former is more likely, but whatever it turns out to be, Kennedy described it as a piece of the puzzle, rather than the picture on the box. "I don't want to exaggerate the degree of the chunk [I'm writing]," he said. "It's more analogous to Patrick Weekes writing [Mass Effect character] Mordin than me being told to go off and write a whole different country... It's nothing that grandiose, but it is distinct. It's a bit of lore which has not been addressed much to date in Dragon Age."   

EA, unsurprisingly, isn't prepared to say anything more about it: The company told Polygon that "it’s a pleasure having Alexis involved with BioWare, [but] we have no new information to share regarding Dragon Age at this time.” 

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.