Submitted 10 hours ago by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
Mass Effect will not continue.
I guess, players refused to play games which lack contrast and expose them to the same politics they are already experiencing in their daily lives. Maybe all the newer games needed for success was an integrated mini game about the character doing their taxes.
Anthem is so funny next to those other titles.
Fitting, in a way. An illustration of the direction they went and what effectively ended them.
F
When I was in college there was a girl I knew who ranted and complained when BioWare was bought by EA. She was right.
That was my first exposure to understanding what EA is.
Bioware was dead shortly after EA bought them.
it’s dead as soon as leadership starts targeting acquisition. internal priorities change and it’s not on a quality product, it’s on pumping the numbers to look favourably regardless of truthfulness
or maybe I’m just bitter because I see this happening at my own workplace. we just launched a new website, and pretty much every claim about our culture and process and priorities is a lie. it used to be true. it hasn’t been in a couple years, and it sure as fuck isn’t right now.
before, actually. as soon as bioware execs started sniffing the asses of potential buyers. it wouldn’t have mattered which of the game giants sucked up the pieces, the outcome would have been the same. the corpo-culture would chase the talent away and the studio would fade away.
Pretty interesting that both Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka (the two remaining co-founders by the time of the EA acquisition) both bailed at the same time in 2012. After quite a number of lead developers and writers jumped ship.
So, it took 5 years of trying to tough it out under corporate ownership before they were like ‘this is bullshit, let’s go’.
And BioWare, who made so many great titles, didn’t produce anything particularly noteworthy after that.
Staying was probably in their contract. Its pretty common when a company is bought out that selling ownership stay for X amount of years after so the company doesn’t just instantly nose dive.
Yup, and there’s a little quid pro quo, too: You have to stay but they make you president in the corporate structure over the acquisition and probably get stock offerings. Kind of expected, but I’m sure it’s nice to be able to say you’re a senior VP or whatever in a much bigger company.
They were just counting down the days for when their contracts were up.
Kind of a shame but also understandable. You put your life, blood sweat and tears, all the overtime, every waking moment, to build something and if the opportunity to cash out arrives they almost always take it. Otherwise they’re just riding the wolf by the ears until they crash from burnout.
A lot of us predicted this would happen after Veilguard not meeting expectations. EA would eventually make BioWare take the fall for EA’s bad management choices.
Honestly, the surprise was that it took them this long to do it.
Let’s be real, this isn’t on EA. The Bioware that made great games hasn’t existed for a decade. EA gave Bioware enough time to get its act together and they never could. Any studio with a decade of failures would be shut down.
I’m not willing to let EA off the hook. ME: Andromeda had good ideas in it. If EA hadn’t forced them to use the DICE engine, they could have spent more time on shipping and polishing features and likely would have had a much stronger launch.
If you think EA didn’t immediately infect and get their tendrils everywhere in Bioware after they were purchased.. you do not understand how these corporations work. At all.
Damn, sad to see people lose their jobs, but the Mass Effect cancellation is just an extra kick in the ass.
Canadian studio based out of my home town of Edmonton. Fuck you, EA.
Who was EA sold off to?
The Saudis and Jared Kushner, but mostly the Saudis. It’s a private equity fund, and they used a leverage buyout for the sale, which means they basically took out a loan against the thing they’re buying in order to fund it. There’s a lot of debt to pay interest on, and cost cutting was inevitable.
A.I is the reason.
Worth remembering that most of that list predates EA. Baldur’s Gate, KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire and the first Mass Effect were all made before EA bought BioWare in the 2007 deal that also brought in Pandemic, which EA shut down about two years later. The EA years are mostly the later Dragon Age and Mass Effect games, Anthem and Veilguard.
Dragon Age’s inception was long before EA too. I remember them talking about it in the Neverwinter Nights community forums.
Back then very little was known beyond the title, the fact it would be an original IP and that the “Dragon Age” title would be about a literal calendar “age of the Dragon” rather than indicating the presence of actual dragons.
Hard to say how much of it was conceived then, but they were probably already writing stuff.
They weren’t saying “Dragon Age” was an EA‐years product. The later games in the Dragon Age franchise were.
I feel like they need to drop the ‘Arts’ from their name.
Or prepend it with an F
That’s been true for maybe 30 years. 20, anyway.
As soon as they started talking about accelerating innovation, creating new “intellectual property”, and increasing shareholder value, the “Arts” were definitely over. And probably before then.
Think I’d blame the downhill turn which has mostly continued on Riccitiello
Weird, given that there’s also a Mass Effect TV show in the works. Unless that got axed in the last couple months
Probably just sold the rights to another company.
If it’s anything like the Halo TV show, expect some low budget slop with a 10:1 marketing:production budget.
Oh, I can see it now. The plot is clear!
In this timeline, the Geth are actually cyborgs who look like humans. They are attacking Eden Prime at the behest of their mysterious master. Saren is the first human spectre and helps Commander Shepard escape from Eden Prime before the planet is exploded by Sovereign.
Saren and Shepard then go to New York to contact the Council, reporting a strange intelligence supporting the Geth. But then, the duo is attacked by a Geth ambush team! After managing to defeat the Geth fleet in orbit, Saren boards Sovereign and makes it say who the mastermind is, but gets brainwashed!
After this, Shepard chases Saren through a series of mass relays, eventually reaching Ilos. That is where Saren reveals the awful truth - the enemy turned out to be a Prothean VI hidden deep underground. The VI, named Vigil, commands Sovereign, and seeks to destroy the entire galaxy if not stopped! In a moment of lucidity, Saren pilots Sovereign into Ilos, destroying the planet and Vigil for good!
The final scene shows Shepard, distraught over the loss of his friend, just before the Council sends him an email that he is the new human spectre, in Saren’s honor!
I’m still mad about that abomination of a show.
Well, the TV show isn’t done by Bioware.
It’s E.A.!
I've enjoyed a lot of their games, but KOTOR has a very special place in my heart.
Nothing could top it. Jade Empire came close though. It deserved more recognition.
This one hits close to home. Bioware games were a big part of my youth. I can’t remember how often I replayed bg2, but I still remember the joy when I actually properly beat it for the first time. I’ll never forget the thrill when I explored the dwarven tunnels in Dragon Age or the magic of Mass Effect’s masterful world building.
Fuck EA.
I remember falling in love with Kotor and Jade Empire on my original Xbox.
Was super disappointed we didn’t get sequels on the Xbox 360. The first Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins made up for it though. Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 2 were a let down. More action then RPG.
I have so many memories about the hype for Dragon Age: Origins. Reading about it in high school, drooling over screenshots. All via Games for Windows magazine. I was probably the only person subscribed to it lol.
EA making sure I boycott them by cancelling any games I am interested in and enshitifying the rest (Looking at you Skate 4 and the upcoming Fight Night game)
If you weren’t already boycotting them I have a tough time believing you’ll stick with it now
Electronic Arts hasn’t made a good game since “Mail Order Monsters”
If u don’t put respect on NFS underground I don’t think we can be friends
Mother fuckers.
Rheinish@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Another studio joins the EA graveyard. EA is such an awful company. Bioware made Baldur’s Gate, Dragon’s Age, Mass Effect, KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights, and Jade Empire. What a great studio it was. RIP o7
cheat700000007@lemmy.world 55 minutes ago
It’s been shit for years, mass effect 2 was the last great title they did, 16 years ago
rtxn@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Honestly, this is one where I can’t put all of the blame on EA. Bioware has been in a decline since My Face Is Tired, and a complete freefall since Anthem. Veilguard was their last chance and they blew it. The “Bioware magic” turned out to be a fart in the wind.
MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
It’s because most of the people who made those games probably left. Companies don’t make games, people do.
Even the people who don’t leave, after having some success, may end up getting promoted. Once promoted their talents may not be suited to management or the promotion might go to their head and they’ll be undone by their own hubris.
It’s a minor miracle that any group of people manage to make more than one banger game in a row.
voluble@lemmy.ca 6 hours ago
EA bought BioWare in 2007. Sometimes enshittification has a long tail.
BC_viper@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Yup, it used to be great. Another great will rise, the cycle shall continue.
greenskye@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
I think my issue is more how the IPs go to the graveyard not so much the companies. As you said the company hadn’t been doing great. But it always seems like publishers just hoard ideas only to do nothing useful with them.
drcobaltjedi@programming.dev 9 hours ago
Ngl, anthem was a lot of fun mechanically. Great Iron Man sim
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 7 hours ago
And when did ea acquire bioware?
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
EA published several Commodore 64 games I liked
acosmichippo@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
some of my favorite games ever made. what a travesty.
Klox@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Aw shit I forgot about Jade Empire. Fuckkk EA.