Former BioWare Producer Thinks Dragon Age Game Series Can Receive Second Life

Last week, Electronic Arts announced the shutdown of BioWare, making it one of the most shocking events in the gaming industry all year. Consequently, this also led to the cancellation of Mass Effect 5 and the abandonment of all the studio’s games, including Dragon Age.

There’s a good chance we’ll never see another Mass Effect or Dragon Age, but according to a former BioWare producer, at least one of them might still get a second wind. Mark Darrah, who also led the development of several Dragon Age games, made this statement in an interview with Insider Gaming. He believes the series could still continue—but it needs people who are well-versed in the franchise. Darrah also added he had been focusing on re-releasing older games to reignite players’ interest. You can check out the producer’s more detailed comments on this below:

“The reality right now is there isn’t anyone at Bioware that would be someone in a position to pitch a Dragon Age game. The team is basically core Mass Effect people. And to pitch something within EA, you need to have someone that’s going to actually do that pitch. And I don’t know who in the world would do such a pitch.

If I was at BioWare still, would I be able to pitch a Dragon Age and get it greenlit? I absolutely think that you could do that. The brand isn’t broken. It’s just that there needs to be somebody to quarterback it. And there isn’t someone at BioWare to do that right now.

I think the first thing you do is you start with remasters. Dragon Age Origins on PC, unless you’re willing to engage with the mod community pretty deeply, it basically doesn’t run. It barely runs because it’s a 32-bit application. On a modern PC, it has a tendency to rip itself apart relatively quickly. So I think that’s where you start.”

In the same interview, Darrah also recalled how he had warned that EA might cancel Mass Effect 5 because the franchise had become too expensive for the publisher—and he was right. Nevertheless, last week he stated the company could still sell the rights to the game series, as well as to Dragon Age, even despite the high price tag that is scaring off potential buyers.

As for the canceled Mass Effect 5, a leaked trailer confirmed it was subtitled Universe. The project was a massive and ambitious undertaking that, according to an insider, was being developed specifically for the franchise's fans. One of its standout features would have been the ability to create alternate timelines based on the decisions made in the original trilogy.

Mass Effect fans have also launched a petition to save the franchise, which has already gathered more than 260,000 signatures. It also received support from Shepard’s voice actors, Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale.