The Next Mass Effect
Hello fellow N7's/Pathfinders I'm replaying MEA just after replaying the ME Trilogy. It's got me thinking about the future of one of my franchises. Casey recently said that Bioware has a few secret...
Forum Discussion
The current state of Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect <Whatever> is "undecided". The key developer of Bioware only announced that a thinktank is gathering ideas for a Dragon Age 4 currently, and that the Mass Effect Franchise isn't dead yet. But EA is the one that gives the money for the projects, so the developers will is just a wish.
Fact is, how Bioware abandoned ME:A for the project Anthem like a horde of flees found a better piece of **** it is very doubtful that there will be ever a ME:A2 or any DLC released in the future. Sad, because a lot of the story of Andromeda isn't told yet and I would be eager to know what Bioware had in mind with everything (the Kett, the mysterious money-giver of the Andromeda Initiative, and and and).
Fact is, no one abandons a new game you still can get a lot of money out with DLCs and stuff. If everything is fine, they would have hired more people for Anthem project. They did not. They cleared out the Montreal Studios in only two weeks, that is like a all-out-fire-sale and shifted them to Anthem. It seems that Bioware trust Anthem to be a big deal, but EA does not, otherwise they would have given more money for more employees and kept Andromeda alive, earning some extra money. So it seems Bioware is taking everything what they got to raise the chances Anthem will be successful. A high bid if you ask me. Nothing else in the backhand, only collecting some ideas for DA4. That is a poor financial decision if you ask me.
So if you ask me, and if you watched the fate of a lot of other developer studios that EA bought in the past and ruined, Bioware seems to be in a hazzle. It is all or nothing. If Anthem is successfull, DA4 and a ME <anothergalaxy> will be come true, but if not, maybe Bioware will be closed down. If we are lucky another Studio will get the rights and order from EA to make sequels for DA and ME. But in my opinion those games won't be games with the unique Bioware feeling I once loved so much.
And before we blame EA in any way: EA bought Bioware because Bioware was financially ruined before. Even with Dragon Age and Mass Effect as their powerhorses they could not run the Studio any longer. They literally saved Bioware back then, and for that we must be thankful. But EA is not a charity club, when Bioware does not deliver, they will close down business for good before they loose too much money. We must face the truth then.
This is just my 2 cents, and I truly hope not to be right in the long run because I really hope for another Mass Effect game. But I am pessimistic about it all. I mean, this "fish" just smells a lot right now.
@Kelrycor wrote:
And before we blame EA in any way: EA bought Bioware because Bioware was financially ruined before.
Is that accurate? I thought BioWare got a huge cash injection from Bono's firm (Elevation partners) before the EA acquisition. I was under the impression that they were doing really well at the time.
There was an interview in which Bioware defended EA because many people think that EA takes too much influence on the process of the making of a game, what they do not according to Biowre. Along with that they stated that Bioware wouldn't exist anymore if it weren't for the financial aid they got under EA. It seems that the costs of making all those storytelling parts with multi-gender romance stuff in ME and DA killed the net profit. Maybe the money from the firm of Bono was not sufficent, or Bioware just stated something that is not true to cover EA? We cannot tell for sure.
I only have a German souces of that:
https://playfront.de/bioware-ohne-ea-wuerde-es-uns-nicht-mehr-geben/
But it is also mentioned in this quite interesting English article of Gaming Instincts
https://www.gaminginstincts.com/anthem-is-biowares-funeral-song
(note that the fate of Dead Space 3 under EA is good example of how things Bioware stated can't be completely true as EA indeed used its influence and actually killed the series with this decision. They probably take more influence as other may want us to know. But this is just a thought of mine, nothing I can proof because EA and every developer under the umbrella of EA won't give us details information about internal things. Understandable)
