Despite the success of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, EA is apparently uninterested in funding a Dragon Age Trilogy remaster. In a YouTube interview with MrMattyPlays, veteran producer Mark Darrah opened up about working on Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and EA’s reluctance to give the series a remaster.
Problems with EA
It may be a surprise to some, but Darrah’s favorite game to have worked on is Dragon Age 2. While the reception to the game wasn’t as good as Dragon Age: Origins, Darrah said the challenging conditions DA2 was developed under made launching it an achievement in itself. He further elaborated that Origins was never intended to be anything more than a one-off. But EA, pushed the series to go mainstream, leading to the awkward path Dragon Age as a franchise has taken.
When discussing the pressure BioWare was under, Matty asked whether EA displayed favoritism for Mass Effect over Dragon Age. “I think they did,” Darrah replied, though he was skeptical on whether it was the reason some, like veteran developer and manager Casey Hudson, left the studio. Darrah said during his time there was a constant battle to secure more developers for projects. A common concern was BioWare employees spread out across too many games. In his opinion, BioWare would have fared better had they been allowed to work on one game at a time.
The Future of Dragon Age and Remasters
Based on the reception of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Darrah said the franchise’s future is unclear. Speaking of a hypothetical future game, “I’m not sure who pitches that game within EA, that’s what it would come down to…’I want to pitch another Dragon Age game, here’s my vision for it.’ There are more games to be made there, but I’m not sure how it gets started right now.”
While Darrah didn’t have any ideas for a new DA game, he does believe a remastered trilogy would be worthwhile. At one point, BioWare sent a soft pitch of the idea to EA, calling it the “Champion’s Trilogy.” Darrah suggested it would be a good way to gauge general interest for further games in the series. But EA is hesitant when it comes to remasters in general, and it’s not entirely clear why. “It seems strange for a publicly traded company to be against free money, but they seem to be against it,” Darrah quipped.
But even if EA gave the green light, there are technical issues with a Dragon Age remaster. Darrah said getting the first game polished up is more challenging than Mass Effect, “unknowably harder.” One of the advantages of remastering Mass Effect is all the games were developed in the Unreal engine. Origins by contrast, was made in the older Eclipse engine. More manpower would be required for such an effort, more manpower than EA may be willing to fund. Indeed, Darrah said EA is aware that mass layoffs look bad, and would rather not hire people for a remaster only to lay them off once the project is finished.
Anthem & Stop Killing Games
Asked about the imminent shutdown of Anthem’s servers, Darrah wasn’t surprised. “To be frank, I’m surprised it made it this long.” He continued by remarking Anthem did well to last the seven years that it did, voicing his support for games preservation. Darrah entertained the idea that keeping a game like Concord preserved could be a valuable for learning what not to do in development. Matty agreed, saying that playing a discontinued game is far more valuable than merely reading about it. “Playing is believing.”
Darrah said there may be consequences downstream of preserving games in the manner Stop Killing Games pushes. Still, he said they may be consequences we should be willing to pay. He acknowledged the different interests of game preservationists, corporations, and consumer rights activists. “We probably need something, I just don’t know what that looks like yet,”
State of the Industry and More
Beyond EA and Dragon Age, Matty and Darrah touched on several other subjects. They discussed the influence of live-service games, changing consumer preferences, the future of game studios, and more in the hour-long interview. You can watch the full video above, or visit Mark Darrah’s YouTube channel. For more coverage, check back regularly with our Other Games section.
