When is the Dragon Age The Veilguard release date? Formerly known as Dragon Age 4: Dreadwolf, the fourth installment in developer BioWare’s fantasy series was renamed to Dragon Age The Veilguard during the new reveal trailer during Microsoft’s Xbox Showcase 2024 stream.
After spending several years in development, we finally have solid details about BioWare’s latest RPG game. Dragon Age The Veilguard takes players on a journey across Thedas to recruit companions and take a stand against ancient elven gods that threaten take over the world. As the Veilguard takes shape, you must master unique class abilities and make difficult decisions to overcome these seemingly unsurmountable odds and pull Thedas back from the brink of destruction.
Dragon Age The Veilguard release date window
Dragon Age The Veilguard is due to release in “fall 2024” according to the official reveal trailer. It will be available for PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and Origin, as well as PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
BioWare assured fans it is “making great progress” towards its fall release date in a recent news post. BioWare says it’s “going all-in” on Steam; it’s already verified on Steam Deck, and prospective players won’t won’t need the EA App to play on Valve’s platform after purchase.
The Dreadwolf name change was confirmed alongside the release date window during the Xbox Showcase 2024. BioWare general manager Gary McKay said the change was “to capture what this game is all about” after the team decided the original title “didn’t show just how strongly we feel about our new heroes, their stories and how you’ll need to bring them together to save all of Thedas.”
Dragon Age The Veilguard trailers
The official gameplay reveal follows the Veilguard as they reach Solas and attempt to reason with him. Needless to say, it doesn’t go overly well. The reveal trailer also offers a glimpse of the Dragon Age The Veilguard companions that we can recruit and romance without restrictions:
- Harding: The Scout
- Neve: The Detective
- Emmrich: The Necromancer
- Taash: The Dragon Hunter
- Davrin: The Warden
- Bellara: The Veil Jumper
- Lucanis: The Mage Killer
We learned more about The Veilguard’s companions and how they interact with protagonist Rook in an exclusive interview with creative director John Epler during Summer Games Fest. He confirms that all companions are “canonically pansexual” and will “reference previous relationships and people they’ve dated before.”
Dragon Age The Veilguard gameplay
BioWare showed off 20 minutes of gameplay, giving fans a more in-depth look at the story and combat mechanics. We follow the exploits of the player-created character Rook and Varric Tethras, a Rogue Dwarf from previous Dragon Age games. Players will be able to choose from one of three different classes: Warrior, Mage, or Rogue, and each has advanced specializations. Just as the pair enter the city, monsters begin to appear through the fade, and cultists attack the locals.
Combat is more action-orientated this time around. You only have direct control over your player-created character, while two party members, such as the scout Harding and private investigator Neve, will fight alongside you automatically. We also see the Rogue fire arrows, which appear to be a skill that recharges automatically. Whenever enemies use a magic skill, a dotted line indicates who is being targeted, giving you a chance to avoid damage.
The player character also has access to an ability wheel, which allows them to pause the game temporarily and select a skill. In the trailer, we see them use Static Strikes, which costs a mana resource that slowly recharges whenever your character hits an enemy. These skills can also inflict one of the many status ailments, such as “weakened” that lowers an enemy’s resistance to attacks while afflicted. These become pivotal in the fight against the Pride Demon boss toward the end of the trailer as the party approaches Solas’s lair, as it has a shield and multiple health bars.
It’s not just combat, however, as multiple dialogue options are available during pivotal moments. This includes Rook deciding who to take with him into greater danger as negotiations between Varric and Solas break down.
Thankfully, The Veilguard difficulty settings are more granular than the usual delineations of Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulties. Instead, you can select the Unbound difficulty mode to customize the difficulty of individual features, from wayfinding to combat. The Veilguard combat limitations are a departure from previous iterations of Dragon Age, but may be more approachable for newcomers to the series.
Dragon Age The Veilguard news
During a Summer Games Fest interview with PCGamesN, creative director John Epler confirms that Dragon Age The Veilguard takes place in Tevinter, a part of Thedas we’ve not explored before. “You get moments of higher fantasy magic coming back to the world through Solas’ ritual, but also things get pretty grim, and things get pretty dark in some spaces for sure,” Epler adds.
Dragon Age The Veilguard development
Before Veilguard’s official reveal, there were rumors suggesting the game would a live service title, leading to concerns from players about Dragon Age becoming a Destiny-like multiplayer game. BioWare’s general manager, Casey Hudson, posted about these fears on X (formerly Twitter), emphasizing that the live elements would be focused on continuing the story after the main narrative is over.
It has since been confirmed that Dragon Age 4 will not be getting multiplayer. According to the report, the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the failure of Anthem were contributing factors behind this decision, though there was push-back from BioWare to make it a single-player game before this.
The Game Awards 2018 gave us our first official glimpse at Dragon Age 4 through this brief teaser trailer called The Dread Wolf Rises. In this very short teaser, we see Solas. He’s an elven apostate hedge mage who happens to be an expert on the Fade and was a prominent companion in Dragon Age: Inquisition. This suggests the game will take place after the events of the previous Dragon Age game. We also spotted the Lyrium idol from Dragon Age 2, although it’s impossible to infer anything from this.
In December 2023, EA revealed Dragon Age Dreadwolf via a teaser trailer that showcased locations players would visit in the game. Firstly, we’re shown Thedas, which fans of the series will recognize as a repeating location throughout the games, comics, books, and art of the Dragon Age series. The trailer shows the areas of the badlands of the Anderfels with huge spires and Weisshapt. We’re shown the canals and towers of Antiva, which houses the crows and the gleaming blue seas of Rivain and Treviso. These never-before-seen regions will hopefully still feature in the new game.
The trailer also promised players they’d visit locations they have “longed to go to,” as well as some that they had never even heard of before. An EA blog post accompanying the trailer revealed that community artists worked alongside to create stunning vistas of the three regions in the video.
Since the announcement, there had been a long drought period in which updates on Dragon Age 4 development were few and far between. Thanks to a post from Mark Darrah, fans have been reassured that the fourth Dragon Age game was still on its way. Darrah explains that though the team is now working from home, and ‘working from home is harder,’ they’re ‘making progress.’
It was later announced BioWare laid off 50 staff members, including Dragon Age veterans. BioWare insisted at the time that Dreadwolf was in active development, with studio manager Gary McKay saying, “Our commitment remains steadfast, and we all are working to make this game worthy of the Dragon Age name. We are confident that we’ll have the time to ensure Dreadwolf reaches its full potential.”
That’s everything we know about the Dragon Age The Veilguard release date, with more news on the way as we approach launch. Check out the best dragon games and fantasy games while you wait, and keep up to date with all the upcoming PC games right here on PCGamesN.