Dragon Age: The Veilguard creative director John Epler has explained why Bioware hasn’t made a remastered collection or rerelease of the Dragon Age games yet.
Starting with Dragon Age: Origins in 2009, the Dragon Age franchise is both synonymous with the studio Bioware, and with the transition to the HD era with the 7th video game console generation.
If the earliest PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games like Ninja Blade and Two Worlds didn’t quite live up to the promise of the advent of HD and more PC like console hardware, it was games like Dragon Age, BioShock, and Assassin’s Creed that realized their potential.
But the five-year run between the first three Dragon Age games and it spinoffs puts them at a far distance from Dragon Age: The Veilguard. It came a decade after the last game that the franchise had seen, Dragon Age: Inquisition.
So it’s clear that there is logical reasoning for making a remaster of these older games. They would benefit from the necessary upgrade to modern gaming specs, and they deserve to be reintroduced to a new generation of gamers. Not to mention, the market is currently hot for remasters and rereleases.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Epler revealed that there are real difficulties that did hold Bioware and EA back from working on such a collection, and it all boils down to game engines. It was easier to greenlight and release Mass Effect Legendary Collection, because they were all made in Unreal.
Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II were made on Eclipse, a long abandoned bespoke engine made by Bioware themselves. On the other hand, Dragon Age: Inquisition was built on Frostbite, originally created by EA DICE for the Battlefield games.
It could be easier to focus on a Dragon Age: Inquisition remaster, with Frostbite still in use and updated to modern hardware, but that probably won’t satisfy fans. On the other hand, Epler humorously quipped on the age of the Eclipse game engine:
“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 Mass Effect, but we do love the original games. Never say never, I guess that’s what it comes down to.”
While Eclipse may seem to be a huge setback, it could be argued that investing to fix these issues will still be less expensive and risky than launching a new franchise, much less a new game, with the hopes of big returns. And now that EA is seeing revenue dip on their big live service title, Apex Legends, maybe they can be swayed to put what would be considerably less effort and money into making a Dragon Age Legendary Collection happen. Or at least, we hope they have the good sense to realize all this.
