Do BioWare game romances mean sex scenes?

So you mean learn to use nudity when it is appropriate for the story?
*looks at recent Bioware games where they do just that* 
Seems like they did learn that.

Don't see how that video relates to this particular discussion though, since in that article CDPR never talks about sex scenes. In fact if articles are to be believed the scene that has the end of an one night stand has V in lingerie rather than being completely naked.  

Disagree. DAI's scenes were varied and ranged from tender to comedic.

TW3 had individual good scenes with Yen and Triss, but all the others were basically the same grunt and grind with recycled faces.

It'd been quite a ridiculous feat of stamina.

My take is exactly the opposite. The ME:A scenes are technically well done but offer nothing of interest. DA:I's deliver something besides the nudity.

And oils.

For his...."blade"....

The old days are past and gone.

The important thing when building a relationship (of any type) is the feeling that it's growing and strengthening. Sex scenes are an obvious way to do that in a game romance but not the only way.

That said, it needs to be unambiguous, meaningful and rewarding, and that's probably why sex scenes are generally used. Games generally have a goal-reward narrative even before achievements became a thing (like boss fights or FMVs). Body language is important - think of the "romances" in the Fallout 4 to see why dialogue alone is very diluted and contrived - so whenever sex isn't a part of a romance or simply not shown, it needs to be obvious physically in some way that the couple are in a romance and not just a friendship, and it needs to match the intensity of a sex scene to feel rewarding enough.

The Suvi and Josephine romances were stuck in the "home base" of their games, and I find that in a Bioware game I really want my LI to adventure with me, so I found those romances less interesting. I think Suvi's dialogue managed to address the fact that Ryder is often away and she wants her to "come home" but DAI kind of missed that.

Solas' romance wasn't lacking or lesser without a sex scene, it was really deep and complex and his deepening feelings, consequent frustration and was well done, and Vetra's romance seems quite popular (despite the googly eyes).

"Need" isn't a useful metric for this.

Sure. The answer to that question is "no" if we're talking in the abstract. It might be a "yes" depending on customer expectations for a game in a particular market segment.

For an example from cinema, Pawel Pawlikowski ended up calling his actresses back for a reshoot to add a nude scene to My Summer of Love after he saw that the rough cut didn't work as intended; everyone seeing it said it looked like he was trying to "hide something" about the girls' relationship. Which makes sense for a European art-house picture from the 2000s. (If Emily Blunt's ever done any other such scenes, I'm not aware of them.)

Speaking of sense? Huh?

Except as has been discussed before and they even using themselves as an example people can have mature romantic relationships without sex.