BioWare, a well-known game developer, has revisited some of its classic video games with remastered collections, yet the first three Dragon Age games are unlikely to receive the same treatment soon. According to creative director John Epler, technical difficulties stemming from the specialized engines used in these games make a remaster complicated.
The first three Dragon Age titles, which span from 2009 to 2014, were built using unique, proprietary engines from publisher EA. The first two games, Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2, were developed on a rare engine known as Eclipse, designed specifically for Origins and scarcely used since.
Epler highlights the rarity of the Eclipse engine, mentioning that only a handful of people at BioWare still know how to work with it, as it hasn’t been utilized or updated for over a decade.
Following the second game, BioWare shifted to the more flexible Frostbite Engine for Dragon Age: Inquisition, an engine used in various EA games, including the Battlefield series. However, this change created a technical gap between the earlier games in the series and newer titles, adding another layer of complexity to a potential remaster.
In comparison, BioWare’s Mass Effect series was developed on the Unreal Engine, a more universally compatible engine, allowing for a smoother remaster process. This compatibility contributed to the release of Mass Effect Legendary Edition in 2021, a remastered collection of the first three games. Due to its widespread use and support, Unreal Engine made it easier to update and re-release the Mass Effect games, unlike the niche engines used in the Dragon Age series.
Despite these challenges, Epler does not entirely dismiss the idea of a Dragon Age remaster, expressing a fondness for the original games. Although he emphasizes that a Dragon Age collection would not be as straightforward as Mass Effect, Epler remains open to the possibility, hinting that BioWare has not ruled out the idea entirely.
