Trying to play Dragon Age: Origins on PC in 2026 is a fan’s nightmare and a sadist’s dream. Even now, 17 years after Marilyn Manson told us “this is the new shit,” the PC version remains plagued with bugs and susceptible to crashes. But one day soon the dawn will come thanks to a group of six individuals doing Andraste’s work to decompile Dragon Age: Origins‘ source code. First spotted by PCGamesN, the project, which will essentially produce a result that’s as close to the game’s source code as one could get, is roughly 60-percent complete after three years of work. Shot_Let_1344, one of the developers working on the project, said it’ll take another year to get to 90 percent.
Despite it being perhaps one of the easiest ways Electronic Arts could make some of the money it needs to pay back the $20 billion debt it’s been saddled with now that its acquisition deal is done, an official Dragon Age: Origins remaster is a vanishingly slim possibility. Firstly, EA executives probably have no appetite for it after Dragon Age: The Veilguard didn’t meet their expectations. Secondly, even if the spirit is willing, the majority of the flesh has been cut away.
In a 2024 interview with Rolling Stone, Jon Epler, creative director on Veilguard and longtime BioWare veteran, said the studio didn’t have many people left who understood how Origins’ in-house game engine worked, making the possibility of a remaster “something that’s not going to be as easy [as Mass Effect],” And that was in 2024. BioWare has since been cut to the bone even further, with the remaining developers focused on the studio’s next Mass Effect game. Fan projects like this decompile are the only tangible hope Dragon Age heads have for an improved experience playing one of the most influential western RPGs ever made.
Shot_Let_1344 said on Reddit that the sky’s the limit once the project is complete. “We can update the code to be in-line with modern programming standards. We can add support for co-operative play by doing things like creating individual inventories/ loot, removing the pause feature. We could add split screen play. We could go as far as making a mobile compatible version. With access to the source the possibilities are limitless for how we can change the game.”