Electronic Arts’ Chief Operating Officer, Peter Moore, has said the publishing giant has little interest in remastering its back catalogue for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, seemingly ruling out the possibility of a Mass Effect HD Trilogy for current-generation consoles.
“Remakes, because of who we are, and this broad portfolio of intellectual property…you add all that together, I don’t know where we find the time to do remakes,” said Moore, during a chat with IGN. “We’re a company that just likes to push forward.”
While acknowledging that other publishers may find it advantageous remastering old titles in HD, Moore said that EA has never been wired in such a way. In other words, Mass Effect HD Trilogy probably isn’t going to materialize any time soon, much to the disappointment of fans.
“For a lot of companies, remakes are a way to drive revenue. It’s sub-cost, it’s an IP that’s there, you can remaster, and that’s great. We don’t do that here. I don’t think that’s ever been in our culture. In the old days, backward compatibility was to convince your mom to buy the new console — not that you were ever going to use it,” Moore said. “Once you got it? Those things went in the drawer, or on eBay.”
The topic of a high-definition revamp of the Mass Effect Trilogy has been doing the rounds for at least a year now, with series developer, BioWare, stating that the project has been in talks at the studio. Despite this, EA has already come out and said that it might never happen despite interest among fans, and it’s clear that BioWare’s focus (for the time being at least) is firmly on Mass Effect Andromeda. Regardless, this hasn’t stopped the Mass Effect Trilogy from popping up on a few retailer websites.