Mass Effect: Legendary Edition’s success had many already looking toward Dragon Age.
Giving Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, and Inquisition a fresh coat of graphics and smoother performance felt like an easy victory.
Inside BioWare, the excitement came from both players and developers, with the team pitching multiple ways to make it happen. Unfortunately, EA didn’t feel the same way.
What Kind of Remaster Plans Were on the Table?
According to former executive producer Mark Darrah, BioWare put forward several ideas over the years.
One option was to remaster Origins and Dragon Age II, with Inquisition only slightly upgraded. Another proposed a “Champion’s Trilogy” combining all three games into one unified experience similar to the Mass Effect remaster.
They even considered building new Frostbite tools and partnering with a skilled outside studio for a complete Origins remake that would preserve the original gameplay and story.
Darrah pointed out that a remaster would be more practical than a remake, as it could carry Dragon Age II along “for free” thanks to its similar engine.
Why Didn’t EA Approve the Project?
The obstacle for BioWare wasn’t effort; it was finances.
Darrah says EA’s stance was basically, if they wanted to make it happen, they’d have to work with the budget they already had.
With the studio fully committed to other major projects, especially the next Mass Effect, carving out resources for a remaster was impossible without additional support.
EA’s own philosophy made matters worse. Darrah describes the company as being “kind of against remasters” altogether, an odd position for a publicly traded business given how profitable nostalgia releases can be.
Unlike Mass Effect, which used Unreal Engine 3 for all three games, Dragon Age spanned multiple console generations and shifted from Eclipse in Origins to a modified Eclipse in Dragon Age II to Frostbite in Inquisition.
Modernizing them to a consistent standard would require significant work, especially for Origins, which Darrah called “unknowably harder” to remaster compared to Mass Effect.
Did EA Lose Confidence in the Dragon Age Brand?
EA’s confidence in the franchise may have declined after Dragon Age: The Veilguard fell short, with former BioWare staff saying the company has always favored Mass Effect, seeing sci-fi as easier to market than medieval fantasy.
With the current studio’s output under heavy scrutiny after a string of underwhelming releases, EA seems unwilling to risk extra investment on side projects.
Fans are frustrated because BioWare wants to revisit Origins, and players want to return to Ferelden without old hardware.
Still, EA’s hesitation, costs, technical issues, and uncertainty about the series have kept it on hold.
Unless EA changes its stance or finds a low-cost way to outsource the work, a Dragon Age remaster will remain one of the RPG genre’s biggest “what ifs.”
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