Time for a shock announcement: Bioware have today revealed that they are indeed working on the third game in their Dragon Age series! Okay, so it’s not actually that much of a shock announcement, after all the series has sold well and rumours have been floating around for a while now that the game was in developement. Still, it’s always nice to get some official confirmation.

The announcement came from Mark Darrah, the Executive Producer on the Dragon Age series from just before Origins launched. “I am pleased to confirm that we are, in fact, working on the next Dragon Age game.” Mark said on the official Bioware blog. “Not a big surprise to most of you, I know. We have been working on it in some way for about two years now with the bulk of our efforts ramping up about 18 months ago.”

Mark briefly touched upon fan reaction to the first game and the polarizing second game, saying, “We’ve visited message boards, read reviews, and we’ve gone to events to have direct face to face conversations with some of our most passionate fans. We’ve been listening, and we will continue to listen.”

In the official press release Aaryn Flynn, general manager of Bioware Edmonton, had this to say: ““The Dragon Age team has been working on Dragon Age 3: Inquisition for almost two years now. We’ve been poring over player feedback from past games and connecting directly with our fans. They haven’t held back, so we’re not either. With Dragon Age 3: Inquisition, we want to give fans what they’re asking for – a great story with choices that matter, a massive world to explore, deep customization and combat that is both tactical and visceral.”

Understandably Bioware aren’t read to reveal much about their latest entry in the RPG series just yet, but they did confirm a couple of interesting things, the most fascinating being that Dragon Age III is going to be running on DICE’s famous Frostbite engine: “We are working on a new engine which we believe will allow us to deliver a more expansive world, better visuals, more reactivity to player choices, and more customization. At PAX East, we talked about armor and followers… Yeah, that kind of customization. We’ve started with Frostbite 2 from DICE as a foundation to accomplish this.”

Other than that very little information was given: “We won’t be talking about the story of the game today. Though you can make some guesses from the title.”  Indeed we can, as a leaked questionnaire last month seems to match up with the Inquisition title of Dragon Age III. The questionnaire said, ““The empire of Orlais is riven by civil war; the Chantry is divided; the Templar order has broken away; the Mage circles have rebelled. Some unseen force is manipulating events, bringing about disorder and destruction. Out of this confusion emerges The Inquisition.” According to the leak you’ll be taking on the role of the Inquisition leader.

 Mark was also keen to point out that Dragon Age III is going to have much of the original talent behind it, saying, “This game is being made by a lot of the same team that has been working on Dragon Age since Dragon Age: Origins.  It’s composed of both experienced BioWare veterans and talented new developers.”

So what about a release date? According to Bioware you can expect to see Dragon Age III in late 2013, but they weren’t willing to reveal which platforms you can expect it on, leading to many speculating on whether we might be seeing the next title in the RPG series on next generation consoles.