Next Dragon Age taking cues from Skyrim

BioWare's Dragon Age franchise has largely eschewed an open world in favor of more closed battlegrounds. This design was especially pronounced in this year's Dragon Age II, which took place largely within the confines of a single city. However, according to EA's BioWare Label head Ray Muzyka, the next Dragon Age may take open-world cues from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

In an interview with Wired, Muzyka said that in addition to listening to Dragon Age II feedback from players, the developers working on the next installment in the franchise have been monitoring the wins and losses of other recent fantasy role-playing games. These include Bethesda Softworks' Skyrim, which has now shipped more than 10 million units.

"[The next Dragon Age] is going to have the best of features from the prior Dragon Age games, but it's also going to have a lot of things I think players are going to find compelling from some of the games that are out now that are doing really well with more of an open-world feel," Muzyka told Wired.

"We're checking [Skyrim] out aggressively," he continued. "We like it. We're big admirers of [Bethesda] and the product. We think we can do some wonderful things."

BioWare has yet to formally announce a third Dragon Age. However, recent rumors suggest BioWare plans to introduce a multiplayer component to the franchise, one that will have both cooperative and competitive play, as well as playable dragons. It is unclear whether these rumors pertain to Dragon Age III or a stand-alone spin-off.

For more on Dragon Age II, check out GameSpot's review.