Former Dragon Age series producer Mark Darrah has expressed skepticism regarding the potential for a full remaster or remake of the original Dragon Age trilogy. While he believes such a project would be commercially successful, Darrah cites a significant technical hurdle: the lack of expertise in BioWare's proprietary engines.
Dragon Age: Origins, released in 2009, utilized the Eclipse Engine, an evolution of the Aurora Engine from Neverwinter Nights. Its 2011 sequel, Dragon Age II, ran on a variant called the Lycium Engine. The series then shifted to DICE's Frostbite Engine for 2014's Dragon Age: Inquisition. This move was part of EA's broader initiative to standardize engine usage across its studios, a decision that reportedly caused difficulties for the Dragon Age team, as Frostbite lacked features crucial for RPG development.
Darrah pointed out the contrast with the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which remastered three games built on Epic's widely understood Unreal Engine. The Dragon Age games, however, relied on custom-built engines for which institutional knowledge is scarce. "There is basically no one at BioWare anymore that understands the Aurora Engine," Darrah stated in a podcast interview. "There’s basically no one outside of BioWare anymore that understands the Aurora engine. So unlike Mass Effect, which is Unreal… there are basically no companies that could help you."
During his tenure at BioWare, Darrah did explore the concept of a "Champion's Trilogy," envisioning a unified package of the three games. His past proposal involved creating Frostbite tools and potentially collaborating with a modding house to uplift the older titles. He reiterated this idea, aiming to retroactively frame the games as a cohesive trilogy centered around different protagonists.
Despite the technical challenges, Darrah maintains that a remaster of the original trilogy would "sell super well," even acknowledging that Dragon Age: Origins itself "wasn’t the most attractive game" at its initial release. He suggested that undertaking such a project would necessitate building a new internal team within BioWare to cultivate expertise in the legacy engines.
Darrah's comments come at a time of significant change for EA, including its ongoing acquisition by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. This acquisition is expected to saddle EA with substantial debt, potentially influencing cost-cutting measures. BioWare has already experienced layoffs following the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, with remaining staff reportedly focusing on the next Mass Effect title. The situation highlights the broader industry challenge of knowledge retention for proprietary tools across generational shifts and staff turnover, a lesson underscored by developers like CD Projekt Red with The Witcher and Cyberpunk.