Did EA and BioWare Destroy the Mass Effect Franchise?

Who killed Mass Effect, EA and BioWare?

 by Grayshadow on  Aug 22, 2017

Mass Effect: Andromeda, a game that was supposed to start a brand new odyssey of fell flat. The game launched with a myriad of bugs and the animations looked like they came from a survival-horror game. Andromeda's story was mediocre, especially when compared to the original trilogy, and suffered from stale side missions. After 5 months of release, BioWare has attempted to resolve many of the issues with successful patches but now developer BioWare made it official that support for the game would be ending including any single-player content. Instead, mysterious such as the Quarian Ark would be resolve in novels and comics.

Mass Effect,Andromeda,NoobFeed,

What added salt to the wounds was that the statement included that support would continue for Andromeda's multiplayer. You know, that place with all the microtransactions that involves you killing waves of enemies with allies. While BioWare has gone on record stating that no plans for single-player content were in development this statement made it official.

Rumors spread regarding studio BioWare Montreals downsizing and single-player DLC being canceled due to lower than expected performance. These rumors became fact when the studio was merged with Motive and General Manager of BioWare, Aaryn Flynn, and the return of former Mass Effect lead, Casey Hudson returning for BioWare's new IP Anthem. While Andromeda did fall short in reviews it did sell enough to contribute to overall growth of EA.

However, things did get worse when it was first reported by Kotaku regarding Mass Effect: Andromeda's development. Shedding some light onto the game's troublesome 5-year development Andromeda was subjected to multiple changes from its initial plan. Outsourcing, changing staff, and a tight-production schedule made developing Andromeda a difficult process, and the end result was what gamers got. 

Mass Effect,Andromeda,NoobFeed,BioWare,EA,

In comparison, No Man's Sky which received heavy criticism when it released recently got a new update that has been mostly positive with their community. Even some players, including myself, have restarted Hello Games' overly marketed game with positive feedback after the Atlas Update. Seeing Andromeda fall into this hole and left behind is worrisome, could this be the end of Mass Effect? However, according to Casey Hudon on Twitter he said that "I love Mass Effect too much to not want to work on it again in the future".

This is reassuring but fans will see this as abandonment. A lot of questions were left behind in Andromeda such as who are the Jardaan, how much power does the Kett have over Andromeda, and much more. Asking these questions using comics and novels instead of content will vex the Mass Effect community and many will lose interest in the franchise altogether. By choosing to provide support for its multiplayer instead of what a majority of the community wants just sentenced this franchise to death, even a reassuring tweet can't fix that.

It's likely that Mass Effect will return, this is one of EA's biggest franchises. However, it's more likely we'll see a new Dragon Age before Mass Effect and it's clear that BioWare is more concerned with their new IP Anthem than the dead Mass Effect: Andromeda. For now, the Ryder Twins and the rest of the Initiative should get some rest, we won't be seeing them for a long time. 

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
Twitter | YouTube | Facebook

Adam Siddiqui

Subscriber, NoobFeed

Latest Articles

No Data.