Why hasn't Dragon Age ever been remade? Bioware Exec explains past plans and continues to struggle
Blog Andrew Joseph 11 Aug , 2025 0
Former Dragon Age franchise owner Mark Darrah discusses Bioware’s difficulty recreating the first game of the series and why it will be harder than Mass Effect’s trilogy reissue.
First, Darrah told YouTube channel about the future of the Dragon Age series mrmattyplays He is “not sure” how new work in the series will begin. Darrah The company is now downsized Just focus on Mass Effect 5this will leave a pause in the Dragon Age in the foreseeable future.
Instead, Dara said, he believes Bioware's next focus will be on the first three games of the series, starting with Dragon Age: Origins – something that has been discussed before, but hasn't happened for a variety of reasons.
“I honestly think they should do it – I don't think they won't, but they should do it – a remake of the first three (Dragon Age Games). “We threw one thing at some point – very gentle, so pitching was a huge exaggeration – is reshaping the first game retroactively, as if they were a trilogy, calling it a championship trilogy, so you have these bigger heroes than life… maybe you're the first step.
“You shine them, reissued them – maybe a remake, maybe not a remake – and see what happens, maybe go from there.” “I'm curious to see… in a weird, twisted way, the Mass Effect franchise and the Dragon Age franchise are in a similar state. Their trilogy is a very popular trilogy, then the fourth game, which is not so popular. I'll be curious to see what Mass Effect does for quality (effect) 5 – What's the right fairy rider there?”
Early trailer for Mass Effect 5 acknowledges the Andromeda Galaxy, and there is an expectation among fans that the event of the fourth entry in the sci-fi series will be part of the game’s narrative – even if the game’s main role will reappear in the series’ original milky way surroundings, following more familiar characters, Alien’s familiar race and theme.
So, why didn't the Dragon Age remake happen? Well, according to Darrah, the lack of enthusiasm in publisher EA is at least part of it.
He continued: “The history of EA is – I don't know why, but they even said this publicly – they are a little against remakes.” “I really don't know why, for a publicly traded company, it seems to be a weird thing about free money, but they seem to be against it. That's part of it.
“The other problem is that Dragon Age is harder than the mass effect. To some extent, it's harder, maybe much harder, maybe much harder?” Darrah thought. “One of the very early things for Joplin (BioWare's initial version of Dragon Age 4, before its multiplayer reboot, and before the subsequent single-player version that became Veilguard) was, 'let's do Frostbite tools, and then let's find a mod house that seems talented, and just uplift them, and pay them to do a remake of Dragon Age: Origins.'”
In other words, Darrah said that in the early days of Dragon Age 4 development, the first chapter of the series was discussed – even if it never moved forward.
“There are many courts around, is there a way to move Dragon Age forward? Origin? Depending on your work, you can get a remake of Dragon Age 2 for free, and you don't have a remake.”
Alas, Difficulty in Working with Dragon Age: Origins are already arranged for engines than remakes Mass Effect (its entire trilogy is made in the more commonly used Unreal Engine), and hiring people to remakes inside BioWare or work with external teams is a tough sell.
“You can't really recreate Dragon Age outside, you probably have to do it internally,” Dara said. “The studio has its own financial situation inside itself, and to some extent, the EA's position may be 'yes, keep going, but do it with the money you already have'.” “Like, we can't do it with the money we already have because we're doing all these other things.”
As for Bioware's future, Mass Effect 5 is now in early production, but it seems to be years after its release. A few months ago, we did at least Confirm a specific return function.
Tom Phillips is the news editor for IGN. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on the Blues @tomphillipseg.bsky.social