Former BioWare Executive Producer Mark Darrah has disclosed that a Dragon Age: Origins remaster was briefly in consideration at the studio. Unfortunately, the project never materialized, leaving fans to speculate about what could have been with a potential Dragon Age: Origins remaster.

At one time, a remaster of Dragon Age: Origins and its sequels seemed like a logical progression for the franchise. Since Mass Effect: Legendary Edition experienced great commercial success, remastering similarly popular Dragon Age titles appeared to be a viable option. However, it has been over four years since the release of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, and there have been no signs of any initiative to rejuvenate the older Dragon Age games.

BioWare’s Financial Considerations on Remastering

In a conversation with MrMattyPlays, Darrah confirmed that the absence of a Dragon Age: Origins remaster is not due to a lack of effort. He mentioned that the notion was, “Let’s do Frostbite tools, and then find a mod house that seems talented and pay them to create a remake of Dragon Age: Origins. There were numerous proposals contemplating ways to advance Dragon Age: Origins.”

Darrah also remarked that the difference between a remaster and a remake is significant: “A remaster would include Dragon Age 2 as a part of the package, but a remake would not.”

The project’s failure to take off may be attributed to budget constraints. Darrah explained, “To some extent, studios manage their own finances. Usually, EA’s position is something like, ‘Sure, go ahead and do it, but use the funds you already have.’ However, this is challenging because we are involved in various other projects.” This focus on Mass Effect explains why it was prioritized for remastering over Dragon Age, with the latter’s different engines creating complicated remastering challenges compared to the Mass Effect trilogy, which was developed on Unreal Engine 3. Darrah claims this made producing a Dragon Age remaster “significantly more complex” than for Mass Effect.

Darrah concluded by stating EA seems to be “kind of against remasters”, suggesting it is unusual for a public company to overlook easy potential revenue. Nonetheless, recent disappointments regarding the Dragon Age franchise, like the underwhelming performance of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, may give EA pause before reintroducing the IP to players.