Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening Released

Some of you probably already have Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening installed on your hard drive, but it wasn’t until a few minutes ago that Electronic Arts sent us a press release officially announcing the expansion pack’s launch.

EA’s Dragon Age: Origins Awakening Arrives on Shelves This Week

BioWare Fans Can Extend Their Journey with the First Expansion Pack to the Best RPG of 2009

EDMONTON, Alberta–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The siege begins again! Leading video game developer BioWareâ„¢, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS), today announced that Dragon Ageâ„¢: Origins Awakening, the expansion pack to the globally acclaimed Dragon Age: Origins, is available now at retailers and via download on Xbox LIVE® and the PlayStation®Network (PSN) in North America. In Europe, the game will be available on Xbox and PC at retail and also via download from Xbox LIVE® and PlayStation®Network on March 19. Dragon Age: Origins Awakening builds on the original Dragon Age: Origins masterpiece beginning where the first game ended.

(Dragon Age: Origins introduced us to a robust, mysterious, and tumultuous fantasy world,) said Aaryn Flynn, Studio General Manager of BioWare in Edmonton. (Dragon Age: Origins Awakening brings players deeper into the folds to face even more complex moral decisions as the leader of the Grey Wardens and the results of those responsibilities and actions.)

In Dragon Age: Origins Awakening players assume the role of a Grey Warden Commander entrusted with rebuilding the order of Grey Wardens and uncovering the mystery of how the darkspawn survive after the slaying of the Archdemon. In this chapter of the epic RPG saga, players make difficult moral choices about how to rebuild their order, resolve the conflict with the mysterious (Architect,) and determine the fate of the darkspawn. Each choice impacts the shape of each player’s heroic journey. Players will be able to import their character from Dragon Age: Origins or start out as a new Grey Warden from the neighboring land of Orlais.

Designed and written by the same team that created Dragon Age: Origins, the Awakening expansion pack introduces a brand new area of the world to explore known as Amaranthine. In this dark and dangerous world, players set out to unravel the secrets of the darkspawn and learn their true motivations. Players will face a range of horrific and terrifying creatures including an evolved, intelligent breed of darkspawn and other menacing creatures such as the Inferno Golem and a spectral dragon. Dragon Age: Origins Awakening provides new customization tools for players to tailor their heroes and party and re-spec their character attributes, allowing for even greater replayability. Featuring an increased level cap, new spells, abilities, specializations and items, plus five all-new party members, players can further advance their adventures from Dragon Age: Origins.

Dragon Age Origins won over 30 (Best of 2009) awards, was named (RPG of the Year) by Game Informer, G4, SpikeTV, and PC Gamer, and was hailed by Seth Schiesel of The New York Times as, (.perhaps the best electronic game made yet.)

Dragon Age: Origins Awakening is available for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and PC. The game is rated (M) for mature by the ESRB 18 by the BBFC, and ‘˜18+’ by PEGI, and has an MSRP of $39.99 in North America. Dragon Age: Origins is required to play Dragon Age: Origins Awakening for original campaign, full features, and downloadable content.

For more information on Dragon Age: Origins Awakening, please visit www.dragonage.com/awakening.

About BioWare

BioWare develops high quality console, PC and online role-playing games, focused on emotionally engaging stories, unforgettable characters and vast worlds to discover. Since 1995, BioWare has created some of the world’s most critically acclaimed titles, including Baldur’s Gateâ„¢, Neverwinter Nightsâ„¢, Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republicâ„¢, Jade Empireâ„¢ and Mass Effectâ„¢. BioWare operates in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Austin, Texas and Fairfax, Virginia at BioWare Mythic. BioWare’s most recent award-winning projects include the dark heroic fantasy adventure Dragon Age: Origins, and the epic science fiction shooter-RPG Mass Effect 2â„¢. Currently. BioWare Austin is working on the world’s first story-driven, multi-language MMORPG, Star Wars®: The Old Republicâ„¢. In 2008, BioWare was acquired by Electronic Arts, a leading global interactive entertainment publisher. For more information on BioWare, visit www.bioware.com; to join the millions of fans already registered on our community, go to http://social.bioware.com.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EATM, EA SPORTSTM, EA MobileTM and POGOTM. In fiscal 2009, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $4.2 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.