Dragon Age: Origins, the 2009 fantasy RPG classic from BioWare, almost received a remaster — but the idea never made it to production. Former BioWare executive producer Mark Darrah recently revealed that the project was seriously considered, only to be shelved due to financial and technical roadblocks.
Speaking to MrMattyPlays on YouTube, Darrah explained that there were multiple pitches to bring the game forward, including the idea of partnering with a talented mod studio to create a remake. The thought process, he recalled, was:
“Let’s do Frostbite tools, and then let’s find a mod house that seems talented and pay them to do a remake of Dragon Age: Origins. There were lots of pitches around, ‘Is there a way we can bring Dragon Age: Origins forward?'”
Darrah also noted that a remaster, unlike a remake, could have included Dragon Age 2 as part of the package. However, he explained that BioWare’s internal budget constraints made it nearly impossible. EA reportedly told the studio they could pursue the project but only with existing funds — which were already committed to other games.
One major challenge was the technology itself. While the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition was feasible thanks to all three games running on Unreal Engine 3, each Dragon Age title used a different engine. Darrah said this made the remaster “unknowably harder” to execute compared to Mass Effect.
Adding to the challenge, Darrah suggested that EA has historically been hesitant about remasters in general. “It’s strange for a publicly traded company to basically be against free money,” he remarked, but he speculated that EA’s lack of confidence in the Dragon Age brand could be a factor.
This hesitation might have grown after Dragon Age: The Veilguard reportedly underperformed expectations last year. EA may be letting the franchise rest before attempting to revive it with a high-profile release.
For now, fans will have to keep revisiting the original DAO — mods and all — while wondering what a fully realized remaster might have brought to the table.