EA shot down pitch for Dragon Age remaster, according to former BioWare dev

BioWare is in a very tough spot at the moment, having released two critical and commercial flops in Anthem (2018) and Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024). In an effort to try and turn things around a bit, BioWare had pitched a set of remasters for the original Dragon Age games, but EA appears to have no interest in sinking anymore money into the IP.

Mark Darrah, a BioWare veteran who worked on Dragon Age and Anthem, recently spoke in an interview with YouTuber, MrMattyPlays. In the interview, Darrah confirmed that the Dragon Age team had tried to pitch a remastered trilogy to EA on several occasions but was rejected each time, even after the success of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.

Darrah explains that due to its fantasy setting and the original game's tactical-RPG style, executives at EA don't look at Dragon Age Origins as a product with much ‘mainstream' potential: “EA wants mainstream success and it's hard for corporate people to look at a game like Dragon Age: Origins, which is super nerdy, not very attractive looking, and say ‘this is a mainstream game'”.

Darrah added that EA has been “against remasters”, which does appear to be true. To date, EA has released very few remasters/remakes, which is why the Mass Effect trilogy re-release ended up being such a big deal. If BioWare's plans for Dragon Age Remastered had gone ahead, then the first three games in the series would have been re-released under new ‘Champions trilogy' branding.

Moving forward, Darrah expects BioWare to remain a one-project studio, as internal fights over resources have had a hugely negative impact on the studio.

Dragon Age, while popular, has never been as big as Mass Effect for BioWare and following the messy release of the previous Dragon Age game, it now seems likely that BioWare's primary focus moving forward will be on Mass Effect 5 and future Mass Effect games.

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KitGuru Says: Hopefully BioWare can survive for long enough to release Mass Effect 5. If the project hits hurdles and misses milestones, it is entirely possible that EA cuts its losses and shuts the studio down due to mounting losses.

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