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
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
@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.
EA is a business, of course they want to make money and as long as they have gullible fools shelling out money on the reskinned games....aka madden, fifa, sims, battlefield then of course they will keep pumping them out. And as long as those same people shell out mega bucks to get some shiny name to play on their virtual team so they can be LEET, and tell all their buddies how fantastic they are because their team has all the great players and only cost 599.99 then they will continue to produce the games and boxes for people to do this. As far as kids stealing from people, well that has been happening for YEARS...aka Air Jordans, leather jackets, and IPHONES just to name a few, and that is a parenting issue not an EA issue. Parents HAVE to teach their kids better and make them understand they DON'T need all that shiny crap especially digial shiny crap that is going to disappear in a year or so and you can do just as well NOT spending your every dime trying to get a player just to have to forget about him next year cause the new game will not use him.
The good thing I see in the trends, is people are getting tired of MTX and things like Destiny2 and Battlefront 2 are tanking because people are saying enough is enough, and this will force Devs and publishers to be a bit better about how they handle it and hopefully it means we don't have a whole generation of people who can't say NO to shiny digital junk.
My daughter loves Sims4, and yeah we have most of the Xpacks for it, we also have Sims 3 but most of that was bought on sale cheap....my son plays many different games(Starcraft 1, Farcry 3 or 4, and some MEA horde together) with me, for the most part NOT online and the games he does play online(roblox especially) he has learned how to limit what he spends to a very reasonable amount per month...usually 10-20 a month across all games. Me I am a cheap B-------ard......I did the free to play and spend on MTX, got old QUICK, now I buy a game and I MAY spend a TINY amount of money on it in MTX, but I will spend on DLC or extra content, well more than any other MTX. I know I didn't spend any MTX in battlefield 1, DAI, MEA, and refuse to buy Battlefront 2. I do own almost all the DLC in DAI, and would have bought DLC for MEA.
