Bioware suddenly realizes that they set their fan base on fire.

(Via Gametyrant) I feel for Bioware GM Casey Hudson. I really do.  He’s not the one who defecated in Bioware’s bed with Mass Effect: Andromeda — that would be EA. He’s just the guy who has to flip the sheets and pretend that EA’s washed them.  It’s gonna be a cold day in Hell before I spend full price on Anthem, though. “[D]esigned to continue delivering new stories and experiences” or not.  I just don’t believe that EA cares enough about the actual games and IP involved to do more than the absolute bare minimum here.

Moe Lane

PS: Let us dispense with the ridiculous lie that Bioware hated not having any story-based DLC  just as much as Mass Effect fans did.  If they hated it that badly, they would have committed to making some story-based DLC.  It takes real skill to mess up one of the most beloved video game IPs in the business, but EA was up to the challenge.

PPS: Remember: I didn’t hate the ending of Mass Effect 3.  Still don’t. And I liked Andromeda, despite the fact that they did mess it up quite a bit. In other words, I’m a super-fan — and EA still managed to alienate me thoroughly.  Muse on that for a while.

 

10 thoughts on “Bioware suddenly realizes that they set their fan base on fire.”

  1. Ditto.
    –
    Btw, I hooked up the xbox 360 to my new TV and started a new playthrough of Mass Effect. Is it wrong that 11 years later I am still looking for the perfect playthrough?

  2. Hardcore.
    .
    It’s rather shocking that I’ve refused to buy anything from Bioware since they totally botched the ending of Mass Effect 3, and I’m more inclined to cut them slack here than you are.
    Depending on the Beta access and reviews,I might even pick Anthem up week one.
    .
    But I firmly disagree with your assessment of EA being the reason Andromeda sucked.
    EA did not make Bioware stock its writing and graphics teams with affirmative action beneficiaries and made the production of Andromeda a beacon of “wokeness”. It’s really a testament to Bioware’s upper management and possibly even adult supervision from EA that the game was merely “meh”. I was expecting a raging dumpster fire.
    .
    I hate the distributors using their market position to buy out producers.
    But it wasn’t EA that botched Andromeda, and it wasn’t Activision that wrecked Destiny.

    1. I get what you’re saying, but I feel that it was EA’s job to keep Bioware from getting infected in the first place. That was supposed to be The Deal.

  3. Oops.
    .
    I mean, look, I’m *sorry*, for Mass Effect fans, that Andromeda sucked, but .. this is *hardly* the first time ..
    .
    I loved the original BioShock for its’ narrative-driven and more-or-less open-world design .. it ran on rails, but with *lots* of ways to switch things up ..
    .
    I tolerated BioShock 2 because of the **massive** retcon of adding Lamb .. game designers clearly *do* know how to leave open plot threads lying around for future games to pick up, there’s no excuse for BioShock 2 creating a fresh new thread.
    .
    I **LOATHE** BioShock Infinte .. not because they jumped settings, but because they *seriously* fouled up the game mechanics .. they appear, despite being the original team, to have simply pasted the name of their greatest hit on what was – bluntly- a crappy narrative with game mechanics stolen from other FPSes ..
    .
    At this point, if a new BioShock ever appears, it’s unlikely I’ll buy it, they screwed up *that badly* .. so yeah, I get it.
    .
    Mew

    1. Bioshock was wonderful. Simply wonderful.
      –
      Bioshock 2 was… odd.
      –
      Bioshock Infinite was just jaw droppingly whaaa?!?!?
      –
      I noticed this when Infinite came out. There was a rash of Father/Daughter games. Infinite, Last of Us, and Witcher 3. Everyone kept praising the writing and storylines of all of these. However, Witcher, oddly, was the only one to portray a HEALTHY relationship. Plus, honestly, with hindsight, it was really the only one to have a GOOD story, well told.

    2. I hated the mob spawning in Bioshock 2.
      It completely ruined my immersion to have endless mobs of opponents rushing out of dead ends that I’d already cleared.
      And with the willing suspension of disbelief lying shattered on the floor, I nitpicked the thing to death as I played it.
      .
      .
      If you loved the original Bioshock, I hope you played Bethesda/Arkane’s Prey last year. It had a lot of the same vibe, but with a lot more space between the rails. (If you haven’t, try it. I’ve seen it on sale for cheap, and it’s a darned good game.)

  4. I gave up after Dragon Age 2… and I was proven correct to have done so very quickly afterward.

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