Yesterday, at the William Blair & Company Growth Stock Conference, EA CEO John Ricciello dropped some awesome release date information. Apparently, both Bioware’s Dragon Age and Pandemic’s Saboteur are expected to hit in first quarter 2009.

Gamespot scooped up this story by being on-hand at the event in Chicago. From their article:

“When asked by an analyst about which of EA's new intellectual properties would be among its internal top 10 bestsellers for 2008, Riccitiello began listing his picks. "Mercenaries 2, Mirror's Edge, Spore, Dead Space, including subscriptions Warhammer [Online]--but that won't show up in NPD, Battlefield: Bad Company...that'll certainly get in there," he predicted. Then, the executive added "Saboteur and Dragon Age" before quickly tacking on the qualifier, "but those two won't make the calendar year because they're coming in fiscal Q4."

For the unfamiliar, Saboteur is a stealth-based WWII game based on the life of William Grover-Williams, who was a French racer that found himself amidst the internal political conflict that led to the Vichy regime and Wehrmacht occupation. Pandemic is taking a creative license on the story, putting players into the shoes of a revenge-minded Irishman named Sean that loosely tries to copy some of the adventures of Gover-Williams. Saboteur will take place entirely in Paris and is touted to possess a realistic portrayal of an everyday rebellious badass who loves to sneak up on and beat up members of socialist regimes. While the story hasn’t been fleshed out entirely for the media, the unique art direction has. Obviously heavily influenced by Sin City, Saboteur sounds like it could be a keeper.

Dragon Age is Bioware’s newest PC-only intellectual property. Bioware has been a tad bit mum on the title thus far, but it appears to be a foray reminiscent of Icewind Dale or Neverwinter Nights with all the new catechisms incorporated into Mass Effect or Knights of the Old Republic. Diverse classes, interesting dialogue trees, story history, as well as epic involvement have all been promised.

Honestly, I’m surprised it will take this long for both these titles to come through the pipeline, but I’ll take what I can get. What do you guys think?

[Via Gamespot]