Electronic Arts is preparing to shut down the servers for BioWare's acclaimed Dragon Age: Inquisition on PlayStation 3 later this month. According to an update on EA's service website, the PS3 servers will go offline on April 28, marking over 11 years since the game's original 2014 release. Fortunately, multiplayer support will continue for now on PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox platforms.
While it's always disappointing to see older games lose functionality, it's somewhat remarkable that Inquisition's PS3 multiplayer persisted through two console generations and even outlasted BioWare's ambitious live-service project, Anthem, which has already been discontinued.
Multiplayer was never the central focus of Inquisition—BioWare's expansive fantasy RPG that remains their top-selling title. Players fondly recall meeting the enigmatic elf Solas, romancing the charismatic Iron Bull, and spending countless hours exploring the Hinterlands. However, inspired by the success of Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, BioWare experimented with a similar cooperative PVE mode in Dragon Age, allowing players to team up using different races and classes to battle enemies from the main campaign. Although it received some updates with new maps and gear, the mode never gained the same traction as Mass Effect's offering and was entirely absent from the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which shifted from a live-service concept to a purely single-player experience.
Does this signal the end of BioWare's multiplayer endeavors, especially after Anthem's failure? While the studio is confirmed to be developing Mass Effect 5 (with no release date yet), there has been no indication of multiplayer features in that project. Following recent EA restructuring to streamline operations, any non-essential elements that don't directly support the future of the Mass Effect franchise seem unlikely to materialize.
In related news, a report earlier this month suggests Amazon's Mass Effect TV series is nearing a series order, though the head of Amazon TV has reportedly requested script revisions to make it more accessible to audiences unfamiliar with the games.
