Dragon Age: Inquisition delayed until November

EA today announced that Dragon Age: Inquisition has a new release date: November 18 in North America, and November 21 in Europe. The game was originally slated for an October 7 release, but developer BioWare says in today's update the six-week delay will make for a better game.

"Since we began working on Dragon Age: Inquisition almost four years ago, our goal was to create the best Dragon Age experience ever. It was that goal that motivated many of our decisions: moving to Frostbite, bringing race choice and customization back, improving tactical camera, building a team of characters whose relationships evolve based on your actions, and most importantly, crafting an epic, nation-spanning story that both draws upon past games and takes you to many new places in the realm of Thedas," Dragon Age: Inquisition Executive Producer Mark Darrah wrote in the update.

"I'm privileged to be a part of a team that has been working very hard to surpass every measure they've set for themselves. That has meant completing huge amounts of game content, fixing bugs both big and small, and improving the overall experience," he continued. "This last bit of time is about polishing the experience we want you to see. Ensuring that our open spaces are as engaging as possible. Strengthening the emotional impact of the Hero's choices. And ensuring the experience you get is the best it can be in the platform you choose to play on."

The choice to hold back Dragon Age: Inquisition, even for such a relatively brief time, may well be a reflection of EA CEO Andrew Wilson's June promise to be more willing to delay games when necessary rather than rush their launch to meet some arbitrary deadline. This won't be the only measure of that strategy's success: EA also announced today that Battlefield Hardline has been pushed back from October 21 to sometime in early 2015.