How Mass Effect 4 Will Benefit from Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Age Inqusition producer Cameron Lee has spoken to the Examiner about how BioWare's team used the experience of making Mass Effect trilogy to enhance Inquisition, as well as what the collaboration means for the future of their sci-fi RPG. 

Lee said BioWare has more flexibility now to move people between the Mass Effect and Dragon Age teams to share their expertise and experience, and added that the Frostbite 3 engine they developed for Inquisition can act as a template for all future BioWare games, including Mass Effect 4. 

"We now have an engine that all our franchises can share, use, and continue to build on," Lee said.

The studio's Chris Priestly previously confirmed that developers at BioWare were working on the two projects concurrently, moving between the games as needed. While each project has core team members, others move between the games. 

In just the same way that Dragon Age will shape the next Mass Effect, the space opera has left its mark on the fantasy series. The most obvious way is the inclusion of co-op multiplayer in Inquisition. Lee says many of those who worked on Mass Effect 3's co-op were tasked with creating online component of Inquisition, indeed, it was recently revealed that the game began life as a multiplayer-only Dragon Age game.

Regarding Inquisition's co-op, Lee said, "It was a real interesting amalgamation of two franchises coming together."

Dragon Age Inquisition launches on November 18th in North America, November 20th in Europe, and November 21st in Ireland and the UK for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The next Mass Effect is in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One but does not currently have a confirmed release date.