EA and BioWare Have Killed Mass Effect

BioWare Montreal confirms that Mass Effect: Andromeda will get no more updates or story-based DLC. The franchise is dead.

[chrisx]

Just another franchise in a line of franchises killed by ea. Pathetic

[Shin-Zantetsuken]

The game was just the victim of noob devs, poor decision, and indecisiveness. The Kotaku report on ME: Andromeda's troubled development mentions several issues that resulted in the final game being less than stellar including office politics, staff moved to other studios mid-development, inexperienced developers, Frostbite inadequacies and indecisiveness regarding the scope of the game.

Frostbite was cause of a lot of headaches because it was created for shooters and not for RPGs. The engine lacked party management system, map sizes were small, animations were limited, etc. etc. The Dragon Age team ran into same troubles but managed to get over them due to hard work and experience. The new team working on Andromeda was unable to do that.

I bet very few people know that ME: Andromeda started as a procedurally generated game. That is right guys, it was supposed to have a procedurally generated galaxy and the devs spent 3 years on it. In the end, they realized they couldnt do it so they built the current game in the remaning 18 months. That is why ME: Andromeda turned to be such a disaster.

[glenn1979]

Yea i heard about the procedurally gen. But you have a good point of the game engine i think allot people over look that area of game engine, other topic kinda wish for titanfall was build on that engine i think it would be awesome

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

This is a really horrible way to end the series though, it really deserved to go out with a bang rather than stumble towards the finish line and shortly kill over after reaching it.

[frostypants]

I don't see how the party management system would really have anything to do with the engine, but otherwise I agree.

[Shin-Zantetsuken]

@frostypants

Party management is also built into the engine. Frostbite was a engine for shooters so it did not have the functionality of party management or even inventory management for RPGs. Here is a quote from the Kotaku article.

"When BioWare first got its hands on Frostbite, the engine wasn’t capable of performing the basic functions you’d expect from a role-playing game, like managing party members or keeping track of a player’s inventory. BioWare’s coders had to build almost everything from scratch."

http://kotaku.com/the-story...

[Krysis]

While I never agree with you, in this instance I still don't. While the game released in that state was unacceptable this is not the first game in a franchise to suck and have come back strong. Mass Effect is not dead.

[Bnet343]

Pretty sad I actually got this on launch night. I had high hopes but man the game looked awful. The graphics should have been like Horizon Zero Dawn conversation, instead it looked like a 360/PS3 game...

[3-4-5]

Yea not really EA's fault on this one...I'd blame the dev studio.

Just start a new Sci-fi IP.

[Born2Game83]

No Bioware Montreal killed it with the their bad decision making. Read the story of its troubled development before spouting blind hate speech.

[ThePope]

What nonsense are you talking about? ME Andromeda is dead for sure. I mean RIP bro. But ME is not even close to dead. This is as click bate as it comes.

[GameRant]

"bait" and you're wrong. Followup plans cancelled and Montreal studio on different projects.

[Lon3wolf]

Don't know about never, Casey Hudson who has just gone back to BioWare says he would love to work on it in the future:

"Casey Hudson‏Verified account @CaseyDHudson Aug 19
More
Casey Hudson Retweeted .......N7.......
Yes! I love #MassEffect too much to not want to work on it again in the future. Thanks for the support - it means everything to our team."

[Krysis]

Your wrong, don't get defensive cause you have an emotional investment in this obvious click bait article. Just because they have shelved the IP doesn't mean it's dead and there is not a shred of evidence beyond speculation confirming this. The Mass Effect IP is worth many millions and anyone that truly believes there won't be another...well it's asinine.

[_-EDMIX-_]

They will cancel those plans if the team is still making mistakes.

It sounds like they are simply going to get the original team to make it.

[Allsystemgamer]

All plans have been cancelled for the immediate future. Sounds pretty dead to me.

[OB1Biker]

I agree and this click bait is even way late to the hate party

[GamesMaster1982]

The people that worked on the game killed it in my opinion not EA.

[morganfell]

Partially so. But in game development such as this there are constant reveals, status updates, and briefings to the publisher. Quite often they have a person from EA or other such large publisher as may apply riding shotgun with the developers keeping an eye on the project. That person then reports back, in this case, to EA. It isn't a "Here's your money" fire and forget come back when the game is done situation. EA allowed, with knowledge, for the sore that was ME:A to fester.

[Born2Game83]

Totally agree. But blind haters will just blame EA.

[InTheZoneAC]

As much as I like inquisition I'm not sure I want to support Bioware anymore for what they did with mass effect

[Sirk7x]

The Bioware you knew is no more.

[DJStotty]

Anthem disagrees

[Duke19]

"The franchise is dead" - yet people are pretty pissed that DLC isn't coming out for Andromeda. The interest is still there, and im sure that the next iteration will sell.

[FITSniper]

It's still sitting on the shelf for me, unplayed. And unsure whether I want to.

[EatCrow]

Let me see. What happens when instead of focusing on the actual game you instead focus on political propaganda....yea...this happens.

[Nesflix]

It's $20 on Origin with the sale they have going on. I can't force myself to buy it though. I want to play it but I've heard nothing but bad things since its release. It's upsetting. I loved Mass Effect.

[Krysis]

I'd pay 20 for it, it's worth that.

[Number-Nine]

Darn. I wanted a Mass Effect 1 remaster. You know, the best and deepest game in the series.

[gamer7804]

should atleast support the game a bit more, stability stuff, if they had a plan for 1 dlc and have started it, finish that, then put patches out for consoles and a 4k patch out for xbox one x and ps4pro

[FlameWater]

Wish I could sit inside a EA board room meeting just to hear how they destroy the reputation of games

[GrimDragon]

It's a shame what happened to this franchise. They were really onto something good with the first two.

[opinionated]

Too bad for those that bought the deluxe edition. Refunds?

[2pacalypsenow]

Add it to the list

[SaveFerris]

Hopefully Bioware can get back to making great games again, starting with Anthem.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

The announcement for Anthem was pretty solid, I'm looking forward to that game.

[crxss]

ME3's ending killed mass effect. Andromeda had a chance but it seems like neither really cared about fixing it or making it any good.

[gedden7]

lol You mean EA....

[Cy]

Utter hyperbole. Just because one game isn't getting any more single player DLC doesn't mean the franchise is dead, ffs. Enjoy the clicks, though.

[badboyz09]

And NFL Gaming!!!!!!

#BringBringNFL2K

[WelkinCole]

All so they can have their Destiny clone. Make no mistake. EA pulled the rug from under this game half way through so that their A team can focus on the Anthem.

[Godmars290]

Didn't people pay for pre-order DLC? Are they getting their money back?

[sk8ofmnd]

The 1st 2 were great and while i enjoyed them much more than i did andromeda, they still wouldnt make it on my top 10 most fav games. There are so many games like this in the genre so to be amazing you really have to stick out. Anthem im def hyped for and while i thought it looked amazing, but damnit bioware cant you do something different than a 1st or 3rd person type sci fi shooter. Its like they are a 1 trick pony and if thats the case the novelty will wear very fast. In my opinion with all these sci fi/alien us vs them/sci fi genre... Destiny is the leader of the pack when considering single player and mp as the whole package. Theres a reason why ppl still to this day play Destiny and the reason it sold nearly 6 million copies on the ps4 alone!

[PhoenixUp]

Hello Games is doing a better job at salvaging No Man's Sky than Bioware is doing for Mass Effect: Andromeda

[Derceto]

It's EA. This isn't news, it's a footnote in their continued existence.

As for BioWare, they were dead long ago. A name does not guarantee the same quality as BioWare from the past.

[Knightofelemia]

Hopefully its just Andromeda that gets dropped and not Mass Effect itself.

[Nodoze]

Great job EA!

[dcbronco]

Mass Effect had huge potential. EA, how about spending on real writers next time. Have a plan for the series or something. What a waste.

[opinionated]

The lack of info year after year was good sign of how awful it was. The developers trashing people and proudly representing their "intersectionality", etc. The whole thing was a disaster but as a fan of the franchise I gambled on a decent game and bought it at launch. I rarely regret a game purchase, even on games I can't get into. Andromeda is a game where I wish I trusted the writing on the wall.
it's utter trash and EA are rightfully ashamed of themselves. That game should have been cancelled.

[DOOMZ]

Nooooooo!!!!!

[FITSniper]

I hope they just mean for now. There is so much more they could do if they don't social justice the crap out of the next one or cut corners to save money.

[KillZallthebeast]

I don't think you can slam ea on this as hard as just the poor devs all around who worked on this game in general.

[DJStotty]

Andromeda may not be getting any story dlc but bet your bottom dollar there is a sequel in the works

[chris235]

what thrills me the most is the few gamers who thought that this was more than a train wreck and actually bought the title.

[philm87]

I love Mass Effect Andromeda. Up there with Horizon Zero Dawn for game of the year in my opinion. I've only recently picked it up, so can't comment on the bugs on launch.

[MilkMan]

"EA and BioWare Have Killed Mass Effect"
Without any doubt. RIP Mass Effect we'll always have part 2.

[frostypants]

Shoulda ended with ME3. Pretty sure that was the original plan.

[Bronxs15]

Mass Effect 1,2 and 3 were some of my favorite games last generation along side uncharted 1&2.

It was super disappointing to see what Mass Effect Andromeda ending up being. I have no interest to play it.

[alstruck]

Lets have a moment of peace, by now bioware is unofficially dead... mass effect, dragon age, jade, kotor, baldurs gate are all gone.. EA just shut down the last thing I care about Bioware