BioWare has revealed that the third title in the Dragon Age series won't be offering any DLC characters through pre-orders or such, instead relying solely on the featured nine party members at launch.

In an interview with OXM (via Game Informer), creative director Mike Laidlaw revealed that the decision was in part technical, and part political. According to Laidlaw characters are a fundamental part of the game's design, as such requires some character data to be "baked" onto the disc. 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."

Hopefully this means that EA and BioWare are now listening to consumers who are growing weary of being pulled by the DLC strings to get the most out of the game. Nine characters is usually the norm for the Dragon Age franchise, so it seems you won't be missing out on much.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is due on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in late 2014.