Dragon Age interview suggests third entry now in production

Although no official announcement has been made, it looks like BioWare may be cranking up development for Dragon Age III.

In an interview on the BioWare Blog, Dragon Age franchise senior writer Jennifer Hepler dropped the following tiny bombshell of delight:

"At the moment, we are at the end of pre-production and beginning of production, so I am bouncing between outlining new stories and starting to write dialogue for the larger plots that are already developed," she said.

To pour a little cold water on it, Hepler was also involved in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and may be referring to production cycles for content updates to the MMO, although a few sentences later she explicitly mentions a Dragon Age II character in a general comment on how her workday plays out.

The future of the Dragon Age series was cast into some doubt when analyst Michael Pachter claimed a significant portion of the development team had been moved onto Star Wars: The Old Republic - especially as some DLC plans for the second game were scrapped.

That said, BioWare began hiring for the game as early as May 2011, and has asked for fan feedback on the next entry, which is supposed to marry the disparate elements of both existing releases.

BioWare boss Ray Muzyka has said Dragon Age III may be influenced by Skyrim; other clues as to the game's direction have come out of events, with a hint that the plot may involve 'saving the world from itself' and be set in Orlais.