Alongside issues relating to the three RPG’s engines, EA is another reason why you haven’t seen remakes — or even just remasters — of Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Speaking on a MrMattyPlays podcast, former Dragon Age director Mark Darrah explained that BioWare, along with other developers inside EA, run their own finances “to some degree”. Darrah then said the RPG studio didn’t have the funds to greenlight a remaster project due to the other games it was already working on.
This leads Darrah to suggest “EA’s stance was probably, ‘Sure, go ahead and do it, but do it with the money you already have’. And it’s like, ‘Well, we can’t do it with the money that we already have because we’re doing all these other things.”
Talking to remasters in general, Darrah states EA is “kind of against” the idea. “It’s strange for a publicly traded company to basically be against free money, but they seem to be against it.” EA put out the Mass Effect Legendary Edition on PS4 in 2021, and then a remake of the first Dead Space for PS5 in 2023.
Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube160k
Last year, it was explained by Dragon Age: The Veilguard creative director John Epler that remastering the three games and bundling them into one collection would be difficult, as they were all built on different proprietary engines.
Dragon Age: Origins and its Awakening expansion were made using the Eclipse Engine, and then Dragon Age 2 used an updated version of it called Lycium Engine. For Dragon Age Inquisition, BioWare switched to Frostbite. Compared to the original Mass Effect trilogy, which were all developed using the Unreal Engine, bringing the first three Dragon Age RPGs together into a single application and having them work together represents a far tougher task.
John Epler added: “I think I’m one of about maybe 20 people left at BioWare who’s actually used Eclipse. It’s something that’s not going to be as easy as Mass Effect, but we do love the original games. Never say never, I guess that’s what it comes down to.”
Are you still hoping BioWare will one day go back to remaster the old Dragon Age games? Let us know in the comments below.
[source youtube.com, via pcgamesn.com]
Liam grew up with a PlayStation controller in his hands and a love for Metal Gear Solid. Nowadays, he’s found playing the latest and greatest PS5 games as well as supporting Derby County. That last detail is his downfall.