Email to Bioware
I have just finish mass effect andromeda and honestly speaking i find it good. Not as bad as most people had said. I wanted to get this email to bioware but was unable to. I want to let them know tha...
Forum Discussion
Yeah it just seem like they are giving up on Andromeda when there is still potential in the game. Really hope that bioware would give it another go.
Bioware dont even exist any more. EA took them over and shut the studios down. Shame really because they had a history of producing good games. MEA was doomed before it was released, serious issues in development. EA deliberately over-hyped it, showed some flashy graphics footage, and released a broken game. They made a huge amount of cash on the pre-orders and diverted funding and staff to Anthem and other projects. It only looks like it has potential because it was never finished. Thats what really upset people, 3 years of promises deliberately broken. They wont publish another one for a good few years because people will not buy it. I know people that played Mass Effect from the first one that will not buy another EA game. You only have to look around the gaming forums, its poisonous.
PC multiplayer was quite fun, until the cheats took over, EA's only action was to stop paying for the anti-cheat software and remove it from the game. Then they added a ton of rubbish weapons to milk the loot box market. That cost them a lot of players. Most of the top players on PS4 left for Destiny 2, a friend of mine still plays, but only with a couple of friends and he'll be off as soon as another game he likes pops up.
https://www.masseffect.com/news/mass-effect-andromeda-update-from-the-studio
Correction....Bioware does exist, EA just shut down one of the studios of it, which happened to be the one which failed on MEA. Now, if Anthem and next Dragon Age tanks, then I could easily see the studio boarded up and dropped, but so far they are still around. The biggest two issues with MEA in production was they gave a AAA game to the B team, and then mandated a switch to the Frostbite engine mid development....and the B team couldn't handle it and either didn't ask for extra time or wasn't granted it. I know in a interview someone at EA said they could have delayed MEA by up to 6 months and not hurt the financials of the company, so the question is....Was he lying or did the B team at Bioware fail to ask because of some unknown reason??
Sad thing is, patched up the game is decent...not really up to ME standards but still decent and playable...I have almost 600 hours in game according to Origin....but if they had of delayed and released it in current form and then spent 6+ more months improving from there, the game could have been so good and probably would have gotten DLC and further support. Someone in either EA or Bioware really #####ed the pooch on this delay or release decision.......
Get your facts straight, @Delgorath.
EA bought BioWare back in 2005. That was even before Mass Effect was released, let alone DAO, or ME2, or ME3, or DAI. Yes, EA now stipulates that the Frostbite engine be used for all AAA games, which allows for easy porting of the code to all three major platforms and is already owned by EA. But after green-lighting a project, EA has little to nothing to do with the actual design or development of a game beyond setting the overall budget and the expected release date.
MEA was definitely handed to the B-Team, BioWare Montréal, and they dropped the ball. BioWare Edmonton took over and Casey Hudson was brought back and (I think) was given instructions to "get this thing out the door with minimal additional cost" only after it became clear the project had gone seriously off the rails. That wasn't EA's fault, (unless you mean they should have pulled the plug sooner.)
@mcsupersport wrote:
The biggest two issues with MEA in production was they gave a AAA game to the B team, and then mandated a switch to the Frostbite engine mid development
They used Frostbite from the start.
@ThandalNLyman wrote:
BioWare Edmonton took over and Casey Hudson was brought back and (I think) was given instructions to "get this thing out the door with minimal additional cost" only after it became clear the project had gone seriously off the rails.
Casey Hudson only returned to BioWare in July, which was after the game's release. He replaced Aaryn Flynn as general manager. I think you're perhaps thinking of Mac Walters. Which brings me to the following:
@Delgorath wrote:
They made a huge amount of cash on the pre-orders and diverted funding and staff to Anthem and other projects.
I don't know why people keep saying this, because it was the other way around. BioWare sent senior staff from Edmonton to Montreal to get the project back on track.
@Delgorath wrote:
Bioware dont even exist any more.
As was pointed out, BioWare still has their studios in Edmonton and Texas. The Montreal studio still exists with a large part of its staff, but as part of Motive who they already shared a building with.
- Thank all for the information provided on what happen to the game and I really appreciate that all of you took the time to read my Long email (which I can't send to ea for some reason). Deep down I think all of you want the same thing as I do: MEA to produce DLC which would wrap up the game story instead of producing it in a comic form.
I hope my message get out and bioware staff saw my email and think that there are still supporter out there for them and hoping to see more of their work. @Fred_vdp; Of course you're right, I am thinking of Mac Walters!
But I think it's disingenuous to say that the BioWare Montréal staff were "sent" to Motive. Some, maybe even most by headcount, did switch studios. But I'd bet if you looked at the skill sets and levels of the individuals you'd find it was the most generic types who were offered positions. Animators, level creators, etc. Not writers, art directors, producers, the people who give a game its "character".
EA is all about micro transactions, and how to sell the player something, and then keep bilking them out of more, and more money, for less, and less original content.
They are evolving the free to play MMORPG to buy it, and then pay, pay, pay... And then add something like pet's, and then add something like night life, and vampires, and Oh was that sim's 3... but I would need to buy all that again for Sim's 4, or was it something I had to buy in Sim's 2.... ( WE are so predictable, and gullible)
They have a formula, and it works on about 70% of the gamer's out there, and it works so good that the gamer's will even defend it, like its the right thing to do, and anyone that speaks out about it is Ostracized, and spurned.
I see a future where Children, Steal from there Brother's, mothers, and Grandmother, and Whom ever, Just to fix there Micro transaction Addiction.
