Mass Effect 4 will be a Frostbite 3 game, but will Dragon Age 3?
UPDATE: Aaryn Flyn confirms that both games will use Frostbite 3.
Update: BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn - he who took over when Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka left - has confirmed that both Dragon Age 3 "and the next Mass Effect" will use Frostbite 3.
"For everyone who's been asking after the #BF4 reveal, #DA3 and the next Mass Effect are also using Frostbite 3. It's awesome," he tweeted.
The ramifications, however, are that neither game may be made for Wii U. Patrick Bach from Frostbite-maker DICE told Eurogamer at GDC that Frostbite 3 doesn't support Wii U at the moment. "The Wii U is not a part of our focus right now," he said.
Original story: We knew Mass Effect 4 would be a Frostbite game and now we know it'll run on the latest version of that engine, which is Frostbite 3.
We could have assumed as much, because why would it run on a previous iteration of the engine? And BioWare never mentioned a number next to "Frostbite" when it was announced. Nevertheless, now we can be sure.
"This BF4 gameplay video is spectacular, and a great way to see what the engine of the next Mass Effect is capable of!" tweeted BioWare Montreal studio director Yanick Roy.
But what about Dragon Age 3? It was announced as specifically using Frostbite 2, although there's room for interpretation in what executive producer Mark Darrah said at the time: "We've started with Frostbite 2 from DICE as a foundation to accomplish this."
A "foundation" can be built upon, and BioWare had only "started with Frostbite 2". And again, why would BioWare use a previous version of DICE's engine to power its new game?
I asked Yanick Roy on Twitter whether Dragon Age 3 would also use Frostbite 3.
"I'll let them speak to that," he replied, referencing the Dragon Age 3 team at BioWare's Edmonton HQ.
"My team's focus is on the next Mass Effect, and we plan on using the latest and greatest FB [Frostbite] can offer."
Dragon Age 3 was announced as a late-2013 game, although we haven't yet seen anything of it, which worries me. Mass Effect 4 is further off and doesn't have any kind of date.
The platforms Dragon Age 3 will be available on haven't been announced. My money's on it being a PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and next Xbox release - cross-generation, in other words.