Video Gamer is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
EA is “absolutely actively looking” at HD remasters for current generation consoles, executive VP Patrick Soderlund has told Game Informer.
It’s a dramatic change of tune from E3 2015 when Soderlund said EA’s focus was on looking ahead to new projects not returning to existing games for remasters.
“What’s changed is that there is proof in the market that people want it, maybe more than there was when we spoke,” said Soderlund at Gamescom this week. “There were some that did it before, but I think there is even more clear evidence that this is something that people really want.”
He continued, in response to the Mass Effect trilogy in particular: “The honest answer is that we are absolutely actively looking at it. I can’t announce anything today, but you can expect us most likely to follow our fellow partners in Activision and other companies that have done this successfully.”
That’s not to say we’ll see Mass Effect remastered anytime soon, but with Andromeda planned for early in 2017 perhaps remasters of the original trilogy could appear towards the end of this year or soon after.
“We have to be careful in choosing the right brands for the right reasons at the right time,” he explained. “A remaster is something that you can just do or do it really well. I want to make sure that if we were to do it, we would do it really well and that people feel that it’s the same game but it feels so much better in this new shape and form.
“There have been titles that have come out that have done it really well, and there have been others that maybe haven’t done it so well. We just want to make sure that we stay in the ‘done it really well’ camp.”
As for when we’ll finally be given a proper look at Andromeda, Soderlund says EA needs to get its major holiday releases out of the way first.
“You’ll get [your first look at gameplay] in the not too distant future,” he said. “I get people want to see gameplay and I just came back from a short vacation and I played through the first three hours of the game. It’s very playable, and there is no alarm about, ‘Why aren’t they showing it?’ It’s strictly that the game will get the right type of exposure at the right time and that we can the right voice for it.
“Right now we’re focused on our big titles for [October through December], and when that’s done, we’ll shift to Mass Effect. You’ll see a lot more very shortly.”
Source: Game Informer
