“Dragon Age: Origins wasn’t the most attractive game”: BioWare’s old series producer still thinks a DA remaster trilogy is worth it, but the knowhow isn’t there
Former Dragon Age series producer Mark Darrah says he believes a remastered trilogy of the original Dragon Age games would sell well, but doubts BioWare or EA will ever make one because almost nobody still understands the proprietary engines the older titles were built on. Speaking on a podcast, he explained that Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 used variants of BioWare's ageing Aurora/Eclipse and Lycium engines, while Dragon Age: Inquisition switched to EA's Frostbite engine, making it far harder to unify the three games than it was for the Unreal Engine-based Mass Effect trilogy remaster.
Darrah, who left BioWare in 2020 and briefly returned as a consultant in 2023, previously floated a "Champion's Trilogy" concept involving new Frostbite tools and an external studio remaking Origins. He told FRVR that virtually no one inside or outside BioWare now understands the Aurora Engine, meaning a new team would need to be built from scratch to attempt it. The prospects look slim regardless, given EA's ongoing cost-cutting, recent BioWare layoffs following Dragon Age: The Veilguard's underwhelming reception, and its pending acquisition by a Saudi-led investment consortium, which will leave the company burdened with significant debt.
- Ex-BioWare producer Mark Darrah doubts a Dragon Age remaster trilogy will happen
- Old games use obscure, poorly understood proprietary engines, unlike Mass Effect's Unreal
- EA's cost-cutting and pending Saudi-led acquisition make it even less likely