BioWare reportedly pitched remasters of the first three Dragon Age games to EA, but was unsuccessful. A former BioWare executive who worked on the series said the studio hopes to remaster Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and Dragon Age: Inquisition and release them as a trilogy, like the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. However, EA turned the developer down.
BioWare launches Dragon Age: Remastered Trilogy
In a recent interview with MrMattyPlays, a YouTube channel known for its RPG coverage, former Dragon Age series producer Mark Darrah said that BioWare has soft-pedaled the idea of remastering the first three Dragon Age games to EA as part of a single “Champions Trilogy.”
Darrah shares his thoughts on BioWare’s two major franchises, Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and talks about the possible future of the Dragon Age franchise following last year’s disappointing release of Dragon Age: Veiled Wardens.
“Honestly, I think they should do it — I don’t think they’ll do it — but I think they should remaster the first three (Dragon Age games),” Darla said in response to a question about the future of the series.
“One of the things we proposed at one point – rather gently, so ‘pitch’ is a serious exaggeration – was to retroactively rename the first three games as if they were a trilogy and call it the ‘Championship Trilogy,'” he said.
However, according to Darrah, the remake trilogy was rejected by EA. He also said that remaking old Dragon Age games would be much more difficult than remaking Mass Effect games.
“EA has always been — I don’t really know why, but they’ve even said it publicly — that they’re kind of opposed to the remake,” Darla said. “I don’t really know why. It’s weird for a public company to basically seem to be against free money, but they seem to be against it. But that’s just part of it.
“The other thing is, Dragon Age is harder to do than Mass Effect, and in a way it’s unimaginably harder. Maybe just a little bit harder, maybe a lot harder,” Darla explained.
John Epler, the creative director of “Dragon Age: Veiled Guard”, also expressed the same view when the game was released in 2024. Epler talked about the possibility of remastering the first three Dragon Age games for modern platforms, much like Mass Effect Legendary Edition, saying it would be a challenging task.
“I think I’m one of about 20 people left at BioWare who actually used Eclipse,” Epler said last year. “It’s not as easy as Mass Effect, but we do love the original game. Never say never, I guess that’s what it comes down to.”
The first two “Dragon Age” games used BioWare’s custom Eclipse engine, while the “Mass Effect” trilogy was developed using the more common Unreal Engine, which made the process of remaking the “Mass Effect Legend Edition” relatively smooth.
BioWare released Dragon Age: Veiled Keeper, the series’ first new game in ten years, last October, but the role-playing game failed to meet EA’s sales expectations. Shortly after the game’s release, BioWare confirmed that it had no plans to release post-launch content for Dragon Age: Veiled Keeper, instead shifting its focus to the next Mass Effect game.
Earlier this year, reports surfaced that BioWare was facing widespread layoffs after a lackluster performance following the release of Dragon Age: Veiled Wardens. EA reportedly laid off more than 20 employees and permanently moved several others to different internal teams.
Last month, BioWare announced that it would be shutting down Anthem , years after its release. The game will be offline on January 12, 2026, and will no longer be playable after that.
