Dragon Age remasters unlikely, according to Dragon Age: The Veilguard Creative Director

Dragon Age: The Veilguard has proven a success so far, garnering highly positive critical reception as well as selling exceptionally, resulting in it becoming BioWare’s best Steam launch so far according to data collected by SteamDB. That said, the game is the fourth entry in a series whose first two entries initially released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 over ten years ago. With the success of Dragon Age: The Veilguard likely generating interest in players who may not have even played the first few games, are we likely to see a Mass Effect: Legendary Edition-style remaster on current-generation consoles? According to an interview with Dragon Age: The Veilguard Creative Director John Epler, probably not.

As per an interview with Rolling Stone, Epler revealed that current BioWare staff’s inexperience with the Eclipse game engine that Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II utilised is the key reason behind those games likely remaining tied to previous generations of consoles.  “I think I’m one of about maybe 20 people left at BioWare who’s actually used Eclipse,” Epler estimates. “[Remastering Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II is] something that’s not going to be as easy Mass Effect, but we do love the original games.”

By contrast, the original Mass Effect games were developed using Unreal Engine 3. This was a popular and malleable game engine on whose successor Mass Effect 5 is reportedly being developed. This made remastering the first three Mass Effect games for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S much less complicated, as the team at BioWare still knew how to use Unreal Engine. With an older proprietary engine like Eclipse, however, it would make the porting process more challenging due to the additional training required. Despite this, Epler states “never say never” on the subject of remasters, and doesn’t rule it out.

One other takeaway from the interview is that there are no current plans for post-launch support. While all three previous Dragon Age games received post-launch expansions, providing new story content, gameplay features and locations, BioWare is turning its focus entirely towards its upcoming Mass Effect game. While Dragon Age: The Veilguard is bursting at the seams with content and not necessarily crying out for expansions, it is a little disappointing to hear. That said, if it means that the next Mass Effect can be as effective a revival of a beloved BioWare franchise as The Veilguard has been, then that should hopefully be a worthwhile tradeoff.