Will There Be a Dragon's Dogma 3? Here’s Everything We Know
An uncertain future.
Twelve years after the release of the first Dragon’s Dogma, we finally have a sequel. In more ways than one, however, Dragon’s Dogma 2 almost feels like a “redo” of the first game rather than a straight follow-up, directly building off ideas and concepts from the 2012 cult classic. That puts the series in an interesting place, and clearly creates questions about what the future of Dragon’s Dogma will look like, and if there’ll be a third game at all. The short answer is yes, there most likely will be another game. But the longer answer is that it might look quite different from the Dragon’s Dogma that we know.
Waiting a decade for Dragon’s Dogma 2 helped Capcom game director Hideaki Itsuno’s team use modern technology to embellish on ideas that weren’t possible in the original game, like more realistic NPC simulations and even a new race of Beastren characters. A large part of why Dragon’s Dogma 2 took so long to happen is simply because much of its core team was busy on other projects.
A sequel like Dragon’s Dogma 2 wouldn’t have been possible 12 years ago.
In an interview with Gamesradar, producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi explains by saying, “While we, of course, love Dragon's Dogma and Itsuno-san [director Hideaki Itsuno] has commented he would love to just get straight back to it, there are lots of projects scheduled, and he had to put his attention on other games for a while before being able to come back to Dragon's Dogma."
Those projects were largely DmC: Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 5, and Itsuno has been a key figure on many of Capcom’s biggest series. For over thirty years he’s worked on Street Fighter, Rival Schools, Power Stone, Devil May Cry, and more.
Despite that legacy, Itsuno apparently wants to move on and create something new. Earlier this month, Itsuno told PCGamer that if he went with his “gut feeling” it’d be “fun to create something new.”
With the kind of reputation Itsuno has, it’s hard to imagine him not being given that opportunity, especially when Capcom hasn’t been averse to taking chances. Of course, things could change, especially if Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a blockbuster hit.
Even if Itsuno doesn’t stick with the series, though, it seems unlikely Capcom will ditch Draogn’s Dogma. Back in 2012, Capcom said it wanted to turn Dragon’s Dogma into a “major franchise,” and then later in 2019 the company reiterated that it saw the series as an “important franchise.”
Looking at official sales data, Dragon’s Dogma as a series has sold 8.4 million copies, which makes it Capcom’s 10th best-selling franchise. That’s pretty good considering there are only two main games, three if you’re counting Dark Arisen.
Itsuno has worked on some of Capcom’s biggest franchises, but hasn’t had the chance to create something new since the original Dragon’s Dogma.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 will likely succeed enough to warrant making more, and even just the glowing reviews are proof of that. An interesting thought is that maybe the best thing to happen to Dragon’s Dogma now would be for Itsuno to move on. Dragon’s Dogma 2 was a chance to redo the ideas of the original, but the game’s absolute commitment to experimentation is what makes it so special. To keep that spirit of experimentation alive, maybe bringing in fresh talent and perspectives would be best.
With two games now it’s clear that Dragon’s Dogma can be a Final Fantasy kind of situation, where games have similar themes or ideas but completely different settings, stories, and worlds. Using this foundation, Capcom could keep Dragon’s Dogma going while letting Itsuno tackle something new and different. This outcome could be the best of both worlds, and let Capcom forge ahead with multiple projects.
At the very least, the question now seems not to be if there will be another Dragon’s Dogma, but more a matter of when. Hopefully, it’s not in another 12 years.
