First, as you all may know, Bioware is creating a new game called Dragon Age: Origins. The game is currently in development for PC, and PC only. It's a PC exclusive game. This will be disheartening to Bioware fans who were first introduced to the company through KOTOR, Jade Empire, or Mass Effect and have enjoyed these games on their Xbox consoles. A lot of us, including myself, love their games. However, I personally would prefer to play it on my 360, rather than my PC, because frankly my PC sucks, and at this point it would be cheaper to buy a new one than to upgrade this one, which I built 4 years ago.

So, I, like many, wondered: Will Dragon Age get a PC release?

I asked a poster on this site, a "PC fanboy" as it were, and he told me(paraphrased): "No, it will never come to consoles, because it would be too hard to port."

I disagreed. Surely the 360 architecture is very similar to the PC and at the very least, a 360 port of the game on "low" settings would be relatively easy, with Bioware's experience at console development via Mass Effect.

I looked elsewhere for answers. First to Wikipedia:

Dragon Age: Origins, (previously known as Dragon Age), is a computer role-playing game currently in development by BioWare for the PC. The franchise may be coming to consoles at a later date.^[1] Bioware has announced the game will be released before April 2009.^[2]

So, I clicked [1] and it led me here:

http://www.dragonagecentral.com/single/1216167900

This is where I read this forum post by community communications manager Chris Priestly:

Dragon Age: Origins will be out for the PC first (since it is the only one being worked on atm). As I said, a console version is possible after that, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Hmm, interesting.

So, I let this set in my mind for a while, dormant, until today when I saw a story on Kotaku about a possibility of Mass Effect being ported to the DS. Apparently Bioware liked working with the DS.

I followed the link here:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/bioware-considering-mass-effect-for-ds

BioWare's Miles Holmes has said that the developer is looking at possibly bringing Mass Effect, Jade Empire and Dragon Age titles to the Nintendo DS, according to Eurogamer.de.

Therefore, I infer two different things:

A. Games are probably easier to port down than up, and any Bioware title could be ported to any console, if one can be ported to the DS. Probably relatively easily. At the very least, spiritual ports or remakes aren't as difficult as some would have us assume.

B. Bioware isn't as protective of their IPs as we all thought. They don't view them as sacred, an in fact they are contemplating adding them to the DS console. Surely Bioware wouldn't be elitist verses the 360(or PS3), that they are already so fond of(deduced from development history).

Armed with this information, I used some basic deduction. Dragon Age would make a lot more money if a 360 port eventually happened. When games like Mass Effect and KOTOR came out they were also Xbox exclusive, but eventually went to PC. No recent game that Bioware developed has stayed exclusive to one console for long, SonCron looking to be the first title to break that mold. The company today is more profit focused than they have ever been due to a recent merger, and the game could be ported to 360 relatively cheaply. In the meantime there have been no denials at all that this game will ever see the 360/PS3, and indeed there have been assertions that this game might see all next gen consoles, as well as the DS.

Therefore, atm I can't justify spending 600+ dollars on a new rig to run Dragon Age, as I believe the game will eventually see a 360 release, at a minimum. Dragon Age and The Witcher are the two PC exclusives that I really care about(that an old computer would have trouble running), and I can't buy what amounts to a new console, for one game, The Witcher.

Just so this topic has a point, I'll give you a question: Does anyone think this game won't be released on next gen consoles? If so, explain your reasoning.

If you're so fond of RPGs, why don't you have an updated PC? PC is the RPG platform, you know...

Other than that, keep dreaming. No RPG of the same type as Dragon Age: Origins has ever been ported to a console (as far as I remember).

shio's gonna get you! (Edit: too late, he already got you)

I think, and have thought, that it will come to consoles. Doesn't really make sense to me that they'd bring the Dragon Age franchise to consoles and have to make a whole new game when they can port it. It also doesn't seem to be BioWare's MO to do so.

The only thing that might bring this to consoles, is EA likes to put every game everywhere.

Some games however, just can't be done well on consoles. This game might be one of them.

It does make sense because Dragon Age: Origins is a cRPG, which is usually very hard to play on a console, due to the limitations of a console.

They will probably do what was done with Baldur's Gate franchise: main cRPG series on PC, and Action/RPG spin-off on consoles.

^ Maybe, but if Ascaron can bring Sacred 2 to consoles, then I'm pretty sure BioWare can figure out a way to make Dragon Age work if they have a mind to do it.

Sacred 2 is an Action/RPG... and even that game is limited severely in the Xbox 360 (multiplayer-wise).

Apparently, not impossible to do on the Nintendo DS, however.

We're getting console RTS games winning best strategy game at E3. The consoles are slowly gaining ground in some areas that the PC was once unrivaled in. A great example of how to do controls for a RTS on a console is a game called GrimGrimoire for PS2. Excellently implimentations, if a bit light in content.

Again, obvious fanboyism doesn't invalidate opinions if you back them up, but generalizations aren't evidence. "Keep dreaming" isn't hurting my feelings either.

And badgenome, I don't sweat shio(like everyone else does). The day I start not making posts because I'm afraid that a rabbid fanboy(of any persuasion) might call me stupid and create a bunch of generalizations to convince me that he might have a point, is the day I stop posting.

PC fanboys are generally the easiest to thwart. They rely entirely on your assumption that they know more than you do about game development and the PC. However, decisive evidence is universal, and in this case neither side has any. Only circumstantial evidence. I would argue that mine is stronger in this case, but I won't be bullied into not presenting it. Afterall, both sides are operating on hope. I hope it comes to consoles. Shio hopes it doesn't.

However, let's make this topic less about shio, and more about your opinions. Shio, we know yours, all to well. You've given it. So far in this post you've been good about not flaming, so lets keep this a flame free topic. Feel free to comment on everyone's opinion if necessary, but don't scare posters away, please.

There's not supposed to be abbreviations in thread titles. I had no idea what this was.

You actually did it before, and got in trouble for doing it with TWEWY.

They have basically said that they want to do that