14 DAY TRIAL // Fans of the Dragon Age franchise might have some time to wait before they get access to the third game in the series because a significant part of the team working on it has been shifted by developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts to the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Michael Pachter, the analyst watching the video game industry at Wedbush Morgan, has stated in a note to investors that, “We believe that a significant portion of the BioWare team responsible for the game was reassigned to Star Wars in order to create content and fix bugs to keep the game’s audience engaged.”
He added, “We remain incorrigibly positive on the EA story. Despite a relatively low number of packaged good releases this year, we expect EA to grow revenue and earnings, primarily due to unrivalled digital strength.
“We believe EA represents the best opportunity for investors to benefit from continued digital growth for the industry next year, as well as from a likely rebound in packaged goods sales next year.”
The analyst believes that the size of the Dragon Age III team means that the game, which was initially set to be launched during the last quarter of 2013, has now been delayed to the first few months of 2014.
Mike Laidlaw, the creative director working on the Dragon Age series at BioWare, has recently told fans that he cannot not yet confirm whether a third game is in development, but he has mentioned that they are currently thinking about locations they can explore and are looking at player feedback in order to improve the game.
Rumors are suggesting that Dragon Age III will allow players to follow either the Warden or Hawke as they take on the might of the Chantry in the recently launched Mage War.
Electronic Arts has recently announced that subscription numbers for Star Wars: The Old Republic have dropped to 1.3 million.