Mark Darrah, a BioWare veteran who co-directed Dragon Age Origins and worked at the studio for two decade, has reacted to the news that the studio is closing its doors this week, touching on the possibility of EA selling the IP rights to the likes of Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
While he noted that EA could sell off the IP rights to dormant franchises now that BioWare is closed and no one is working on them, EA could just as easily let them gather dust in the vault.
There’s nobody working on a [Mass Effect or Dragon Age] game or games within the EA organization, and chances are there never will. Which might make them more likely to sell off those IPs. But it might also make them more likely to try to forget that they ever existed and bury them in the vault.
The closure of BioWare was announced earlier this week as part of another round of mass layoffs at EA, with the publisher cutting some 400 jobs. Skate developer Full Circle has reportedly been heavily impacted by the job losses. EA was acquired by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund over the summer and has been on a cost cutting effort ever since.
A trailer for the cancelled Mass Effect Universe was posted online overnight, offering a brief glimpse at what a small team at BioWare were working on.
Prior to BioWare’s closure it had been hoped that we would see a remaster of the original Dragon Age trilogy, encompassing Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, and Dragon Age Inquisition. However, speaking with FRVR in July this year, Darrah suggested this wouldn’t have happened as no one at BioWare was familiar with the Aurora Engine at the time.
[Source – Mark Darrah on YouTube via GamesRadar]