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 we’re nostallgic for (Baldur’s Gate, KOTOR, DA:O) hasn’t existed for years, and “Bioware magic” turned out to be a fart in the wind.
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.
Yep. They bought Bioware after Mass Effect. Dragon Age Origins was already late in development, so that was essentially unaffected.
It’s the games that followed where the writing was on the wall. Mass Effect 2 was mostly fine, but it was one of the first games to introduce the model of “Buy new for the complete experience, pay extra if you buy used.”
Dragon Age 2 tried to be more action-y by deviating from what people liked about the first one. It was just fine in retrospect, but I don’t think it was what anyone was looking for.
Mass Effect 3 had one of the most egregious examples of on-disc DLC, coupled with its very controversial ending that was honestly never really fixed, but just carried by the rest of the game. It was also one of the games of that era to jump on the obligatory “shoehorned multiplayer mode” bandwagon.
Dragon Age Inquisition at least won awards, but I think it was boosted by being an early next-gen title in an otherwise slow year, not having to compete with GTA5 the year prior or The Witcher 3 the year after. I just remember a lot of the “singleplayer MMO” discourse when it came out, and I don’t think it managed to top ME3’s numbers.
I came late to the party and played Inquisition first, and thought it was really enjoyable, and played Mass Effect 3 before the first 2, and thought it was great. I think sometimes gamer expectations are just impossible to meet, and on some level I’m happier to see a studio try something different, rather than shovel the same old grain into the feedbag.
I stand corrected, looks like EA bought them just 1 month before Mass Effect’s release. But yeah, by that point the game was already being printed on discs, with Microsoft as the initial publisher.
The controls were so smooth, combat was amazing in that game. Someone needed to tell Bioware to focus on that instead of wasting a ton of dev time working on all the segments where you’re just a human walking around. It should’ve been all mech all the time.
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.
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 we’re nostallgic for (Baldur’s Gate, KOTOR, DA:O) hasn’t existed for years, and “Bioware magic” turned out to be a fart in the wind.
(edit) And let’s be real, Anthem wasn’t EA’s doing. Most of the game’s failures were Bioware’s fault, mostly incompetent management. https://kotaku.com/how-biowares-anthem-went-wrong-1833731964
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.
EA bought BioWare in 2007. Sometimes enshittification has a long tail.
Yep. They bought Bioware after Mass Effect. Dragon Age Origins was already late in development, so that was essentially unaffected.
It’s the games that followed where the writing was on the wall. Mass Effect 2 was mostly fine, but it was one of the first games to introduce the model of “Buy new for the complete experience, pay extra if you buy used.”
Dragon Age 2 tried to be more action-y by deviating from what people liked about the first one. It was just fine in retrospect, but I don’t think it was what anyone was looking for.
Mass Effect 3 had one of the most egregious examples of on-disc DLC, coupled with its very controversial ending that was honestly never really fixed, but just carried by the rest of the game. It was also one of the games of that era to jump on the obligatory “shoehorned multiplayer mode” bandwagon.
Dragon Age Inquisition at least won awards, but I think it was boosted by being an early next-gen title in an otherwise slow year, not having to compete with GTA5 the year prior or The Witcher 3 the year after. I just remember a lot of the “singleplayer MMO” discourse when it came out, and I don’t think it managed to top ME3’s numbers.
Every game that follows can speak for itself.
I came late to the party and played Inquisition first, and thought it was really enjoyable, and played Mass Effect 3 before the first 2, and thought it was great. I think sometimes gamer expectations are just impossible to meet, and on some level I’m happier to see a studio try something different, rather than shovel the same old grain into the feedbag.
In that case also they were effectively done with the game, but it wasn’t out yet.
I stand corrected, looks like EA bought them just 1 month before Mass Effect’s release. But yeah, by that point the game was already being printed on discs, with Microsoft as the initial publisher.
Ngl, anthem was a lot of fun mechanically. Great Iron Man sim
You and my husband. Now I know two people who liked that game.
Well me and my brother also liked it, so it’s 4.
Mechanically, the game was amazing. It just fell short of content. If they had just added more, the game could’ve been a great looter shooter.
The controls were so smooth, combat was amazing in that game. Someone needed to tell Bioware to focus on that instead of wasting a ton of dev time working on all the segments where you’re just a human walking around. It should’ve been all mech all the time.
Yup, it used to be great. Another great will rise, the cycle shall continue.
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.
And when did ea acquire bioware?