Dragon Age: EA refused to finance a trilogy remaster – news

Ex-executive franchise executive Dragon AgeMark Darrah is inseparable from Thedas: although he left Bioware in 2022, the great gentleman returned as a consultant on Dragon Age : The Veilguard. Suffice to say that he knows the universe from every angle. It opens today on Youtube to evoke behind the scenes of bioware. After a first video on his personal channel to explain the infernal Micmac behind the Bide Anthem, Mark Darrah granted a long interview to the Youtubeur Mrmattyplays where he reveals that a remaster of the Dragon Age trilogy – even a remake – was in reflection, before collapsing in the absence of dedicated funds.

« I do not know why, but Electronic Arts is historically rather against remasters – and they have even said it publicly “Explains Mark Darrah. Remaster Dragon Age would therefore have been an autonomous project at Bioware, dependent on their existing budget, without additional funds allocated. And given the scale of the site, it was a big problem. Indeed, if Bioware had already worked on the improved mass effect improved compilation legendary edition, it was simpler from a technical point of view, because the three games were developed on Unreal Engine. “” If you want to spend money in there, you can just go see a subcontractor and it will make the majority of the job. […] There are bioware people who have worked on [Mass Effect Édition Légendaire] But not much. »

To the reverse, the franchise Dragon Age used different engines for each episode: Eclipse (Dragon Age : Origins) Lycium (Dragon Age II) et Frostbite (Dragon Age : Inquisition). Owner engines unknown to subcontracting companies. Enough to explode the quotes, in short. At first, Bioware wanted to take up the challenge, but the obstacles quickly accumulated. “” “Let’s make tools for Frostbit, then find a talented modding box and pay them to make a remake of Dragon Age : Origins. “There were a lot of pitches to bring this game upon date. […] I think Electronic Arts said: “Yeah, go ahead, but with the money you already have.” Except that: “Well, it’s not possible, because we already use this money to do all our other projects.” »

Mark Darrah takes the opportunity to return to the nasty duckling of the franchise. Despite a resounding start, Dragon Age : The Veilguard quickly collapsed in the charts last year, because of a bad word of mouth. What leave the franchise Dragon Age In an extremely delicate position, since it was commonly accepted at Bioware and elsewhere, that it was the last chance episode because of excessive development time, multiple restarts, a hemorrhagia of staff and open conflicts between the team Dragon Age and the team Mass Effect.

« I think that Veilguard is not a perfect game and that he has a lot of problems, but I think his reception could have been softened if there had been a more transparent conversation with the players. […] A little weird, the franchises Dragon Age et Mass Effect are today in the same state, that is to say that they have a rather well received trilogy and a rather badly received fourth game. I am curious to see what they will do with Mass Effect 5, like how they will manage Mass Effect Andromeda? I don’t know. We either, Mark, either.

To see if Electronic Arts will listen to the good advice of Father Darrah and unlock some pesos to offer a second youth to the world of Thedas in the years to come.

• To read also | Mass Effect: The Live Amazon series has found its showrunner at Star Trek Beyond
• To read also | Electronic Arts thinks that Dragon Age: The Veilguard sold badly because it was not a service game