BioWare veteran Mark Darrah has revealed an internal pitch for Dragon Age 4 that was never shared with fans.
This pitch was shared in the form of a book which Darrah says was distributed within BioWare and to higher ups at EA. The idea behind the book was to “remain relevant” with the publisher, and to try and secure early funding and new hires for the project.
“There’s always a fear, and I think a legitimate fear, within a big publishing organization that you will get cancelled or in, the in case of EA, you will simply be allowed to be to remain on a starvation diet to the point where you cannot continue,” Darrah said in a new video published to his YouTube channel.
“This is where ultimately this book comes into being,” he continued. “This was made in mid-2016 to be something that I could give to the team, but also something I could give senior people within the EA organization to say, ‘Look, we’re doing a Dragon Age. Don’t forget that Dragon Age: Inquisition was a super great game that sold super well, so you want another one, right?’”
The book focusses on what was then referred to as Joplin, the original plan for a fourth Dragon Age game. This was later cancelled in favour of a live service Dragon Age 4, which in turn, was partially scrapped and retooled in the single-player Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
As for Joplin, this book gives us an idea as to what BioWare was cooking behind the scenes. For starters, we can see that there was a chapter on the game having a “reactive world.” However, in The Veilguard, reactions to decisions made in previous games were almost entirely scrapped.
Darrah also shared that BioWare envisioned destructable environements, dynamic weather conditions, and social interactions that went beyond the standard BioWare conversations. There’s even a reference to the player taking part in heists, something we haven’t seen in the series before.
With that said, Darrah admitted that many of these features would have been scrapped even if development went well. In fact, BioWare was in the process of phasing out heists in 2017. But it does show us the vision BioWare was chasing, with a desire to make the series much more immersive than previous entries.
While Darrah failed to reveal the full content of the books, he did share the opening he wrote back in 2016:
“Dragon Age: Inquisition has transformed what the franchise is and how it is perceived by the public. As we move forward, we have a great opportunity to continue the breakout we have started.
“We stand upon the foundation laid by Dragon Age: Inquisition. A foundation that lets us see further. To see things that didn’t work and fix them, to see things that did work and improve them.
“The Dragon Age team will create a more immersive interactive world with people in it who act and react like real people. We have a lot of work to do, but never has a Dragon Age game started in a stronger place. This document represents our current thinking on the next steps of the franchise.”
Needless to say, the developers did not get the development cycle they were hoping for. Instead, Joplin was scrapped, and Dragon Age stagnated to make way for Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem. The Dragon Age series was put on ice after The Veilguard failed to reach EA’s sales targets.
Now, BioWare has been shut down by EA. Many fans are fighting to save BioWare’s work, particularly the now-cancelled Mass Effect Universe, but we certainly shouldn’t expect any developments in the Dragon Age series anytime soon.
Rhiannon (she/her) is a freelance journalist who has been in the industry since 2019. She won MCV’s Women in Games award in 2025 and adores RPGs. You can follow her on Bluesky at @rhithewitch.