BioWare to beta test the next Dragon Age patch to a “select group of PC players”

BioWare has announced on its blog that the next patch to come to Dragon Age: Inquisition will be beta tested by a closed group of PC players before being widely released.

In the blog post BioWare writes, “We want to open up our upcoming Patch 5 to a select group of PC players via signup in a closed, developer-like environment. This not only allows us to more quickly identify and respond to future issues, but gives our developers a great, new way to work directly with our players.

“Patch 5 will be the biggest patch we’ve released to date, and it addresses a number of key concerns for our community.”

While the patch will address bugs it will also introduce new features which is why the developer wants to test it before it goes live. Introduced in the patch will be The Black Emporium; “a mysterious underground shop run by an immortal proprietor.” The shop will offer artifacts, tools, weapons, accessories and new crafting materials and schematics. The Black Emporium will also contain the Mirror of Transformation, allowing players to change their voice and facial features.

Party storage will be added to the Undercroft which has been widely requested from players, BioWare points out. Finally, an item tinter will be added, letting players change the colour of armour by using crafting materials.

BioWare writes in the post “You’ll be able to sign up for the beta program through the Keep in the near future, so stay tuned for more information. Please note that due to the nature of our patch infrastructure, the beta program is currently open to selected PC users only. Unfortunately we don’t have any information on this or other upcoming patches to our broader PC player community or other platforms at this time.”

Dragon Age: Inquisition is available for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.