Mark Darrah, creator and producer of the Dragon Age series, recently addressed the future of the franchise on the FRVR Podcast. According to Darrah, he does not foresee Electronic Arts greenlighting a new entry in the series in the near future.
Internal Challenges at EA
Darrah pointed to the internal structure at Electronic Arts as a primary barrier for the franchise. He noted that EA holds a significant number of dormant intellectual properties, but the process of initiating a new project is fraught with difficulty.
"I have no concept of who could, would, possibly pitch that at EA," Darrah said. He described a scenario where, upon deciding to develop a game based on a dormant IP, internal conflicts arise. "The instant you're about to start, suddenly like three different people who think they control it come out of the woodwork and essentially like rip you apart and chew you up and spit you out."
BioWare's Current Focus
When discussing the possibility of a new Dragon Age Darrah explained that finding a team within BioWare to take on the project would be unlikely. He suggested that if an outside party within the EA organization attempted to pitch a new Dragon Age game, they would likely face significant resistance from within BioWare itself.
"I don't know who at BioWare would pitch a Dragon Age" Darrah stated. "So the other option is somebody else within the EA organization decides they're gonna pitch a Dragon Age and what I expect would happen is somebody at BioWare would essentially become one of those people jumping under the vents to rip that person apart."
BioWare is currently focused on the development of the next entry in the Mass Effect series.