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Dragon Age 4 will reportedly be next-gen exclusive

If players want to try out the next entry in the Dragon Age franchise on console, they’ll have to get their hands on a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S. According to a report from VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb, Dragon Age 4 will be a next-gen only title, marking it as one of few major third-party releases to ditch the PS4 and Xbox One entirely.

The Next Dragon Age Official Teaser Trailer - 2020 Game Awards

While Grubb claims to have independently confirmed that EA is planning to release Dragon Age 4 exclusively on next-gen hardware, further proof of the claim comes from the LinkedIn profile for the game’s former lead player designer. The profile, which belongs to Daniel Nordlander, shows that he worked on the upcoming Dragon Age title, which he lists as releasing on next-gen hardware only as well as PC.

However, it’s entirely possible that Nordlander’s information is out of date. According to his profile, he stopped working on Dragon Age 4 in October of 2020. In the time since, it’s entirely possible that development for the game has grown to include last-gen consoles.

While last-gen hardware is getting somewhat aged, developers are still keen to capitalize on the players sticking with their PS4 or Xbox One. They can’t be blamed either, since picking up a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S is still a major hassle that seemingly has no end in sight. As long as it’s difficult to pick up new hardware, developers will likely continue to emphasize cross-gen releases for their titles. Notably, Battlefield 2042 will release as a cross-gen title, although players on last-gen consoles won’t have access to some of the features that their current-gen counterparts will.

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Otto Kratky
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Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf doesn’t seem to be coming out this year
Art for a Dragon Age: Dreadwolf short story released for Dragon Age day.

It seemed like the release of the long-awaited BioWare RPG Dragon Age: Dreadwolf could finally happen this year, but the latest financial report from EA suggests that the game won't be out before April 2024.
It has been about eight-and-a-half years since the last game in the series, Dragon Age: Inquisition, was released. This fourth entry in the Dragon Age franchise reportedly had a rocky development before the current, single-player version of the game really got off the ground after the release of Anthem. BioWare first teased this new Dragon Age at The Game Awards 2018 and gave it the subtitle Dreadwolf last June. Despite that, as well as leaks suggesting the gameplay was pretty far along, EA's latest financial results suggest it's not coming out very soon.

A slide in EA's Fiscal Year 2023 fourth-quarter financial results lists the games EA expects to release during fiscal year 2024, which runs from April 1 of this year until March 31, 2024. That list includes upcoming titles like Super Mega Baseball 4, F1 23, Immortals of Aveum, Madden 23, EA Sports FC, NHL 24, an unannounced EA Sports game, and an unannounced racing game, but no Dreadwolf.
Other EA games we know are in development, such as skate., Project Rene, EA Motive's Iron Man game, Respawn Entertainment's other Star Wars games, and the next Mass Effect, are all also excluded. Of course, there's the possibility that EA considers a 2023 release for Dreadwolf a secret, believes its release window is in question, or may have accidentally forgotten to include it, but if EA deliberately excluded it, that means Dreadwolf won't come out before March 31, 2024.
That is certainly disappointing for BioWare fans eagerly awaiting the developer to redeem itself after the disappointing launches of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem. Still, players will probably also appreciate it if BioWare takes as long as it needs to make Dragon Age: Dreadwolf the best it can be. 

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Nintendo Switch loses an exclusive Square Enix game next month
A duel in the Wild West section of Live A Live.

Square Enix's beautiful HD-2D remake of Live A Live will no longer be a Nintendo Switch exclusive starting next month. The game comes out on PlayStation consoles and PCs on April 27.
Live A Live is a unique grid-based RPG with a fun narrative gimmick. Its story is split up into eight different sections set across eight different sections: Prehistory, The Middle Ages, Imperial China, Twilight of Edo Japan, The Wild West, Present Day, The Near Future, and The Distant Future. Each comes with its own protagonist and gameplay gimmicks before they all crescendo together in a final chapter.

On top of that, this remake of a 1994 SNES game also gives the experience an extreme visual facelift with the HD-2D visuals that make games like Octopath Traveler 2 shine. Digital Trends found the game charming, with George Yang saying Live A Live "has the hallmarks that make it a good entry in the genre" in his three-and-a-half star review of the title. 
In North America, Nintendo published the Switch version of Live A Live. Now that the game is coming to other platforms, though, Square Enix has taken back over. To promote the upcoming release, Square Enix has released a demo for Live A Live on PS4 and PS5 today, which lets players try some of the Twilight of Edo Japan, The Distant Future, and The Wild West sections of the game.
Live a Live is available now for Nintendo Switch and will be released for PC, PS4, and PS5 on April 27. PlayStation Plus members can currently preorder the game for a 20% discount as well.

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The Sims 4: Growing Together adds babies and bladder problems
A family of Sims plays around and on a large treehouse that features a slide and lights hanging in a tree.

The Sims 4’s newest expansion pack, Growing Together, is all about family. Initially announced in February, the DLC offers more storytelling options for Sims families -- from familial activities like building a tree house together to new social features that will help create stronger bonds between your Sims.

In a press preview event, several Sims 4 team members including lead designer Scott Dai and lead producer Graham Nardone walked the press through a range of new features and gameplay mechanics that come with the pack including family dynamics, the new world of San Sequoia, and a slew of social interactions and aspirations for all age groups.

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