BioWare says Dragon Age: Inquisition will feature nine party members, but don't get your hopes up if you want to bring that number into the double digits. According to the game's creative director, the game is breaking from past titles in the series by not supporting downloadable characters post release.

In an interview with OXM, creative director Mike Laidlaw says the decision was part technical, and part political. Characters are a fundamental part of the game's design, so some of their data has to be baked onto the game discs. Because of that, Laidlaw says some consumers see it as being forced to pay for content that is already part of the game. "It's not the case, but we've decided this time to not go that route," he says. "There will be no DLC party members."

[Source: OXM via MCV]

Our Take

The decision to avoid character-based DLC seems to indicate that EA and BioWare are listening to feedback from consumers, which is a good thing. Nine characters is about the norm for the series, too, which means that players won't necessarily miss out on a robust group of adventurers by not shelling out additional cash. Now we get to start speculating about what kinds of DLC we will see in the game.