After reading through another Andromeda thread I thought to myself: Is Bioware intentionally making a single great game in a franchise then being lazy and superficial in the rest so much as to reel in fans and then have them buy one $60~$120 title every other year despite EA/Bioware spending less and less revenue on the subsequent titles? So like they spend a few mill on Dragon Age and it's a good game and people are hooked, then they spend 500k on Origins and people still pay the same amount for it. They spend less on the next title and even less on the next, all the while charging the same $60~$120.
I think I'm on to something here. They are making more and more money on Mass Effect and Dragon age not because the franchise is getting bigger, but because they are spending less to make it. I didn't mention needless virtue signaling because that is corporate bullshit every big company does. The bigger the more virtue signaling they have to do.
Easton Lewis
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Cooper Bennett
I think you're just gay, honestly.
Henry Lewis
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Caleb Jones
No user, The reason ME1 and DA1 were so much better than the later games in the series isn't some mastermind plan. It's because all the talent left the studio due to EA meddling and shitty management focusing on all the wrong things.
They spend less money on the later games because they are less well recieved and probobly sell less overall. I can't imagine DA2 sold anywhere near as many copies as DA1. I know plenty of people who got into DA and ME and never finished either series. I don't think I know a single person who played ME3 or DA:I, despite knowing many who were really enthused about the first games in the series. These are casual as fuck people too, not the kinds of people who are on the ball with the Bioware shitshow.
I honestly believe EA is losing faith in Bioware to deliver. If ME:Andromeda engenders as big a backlash as ME:3 fully expect Bioware to be either shut down, or have the name and franchises handed off to a different studio. Remember how, after ME1/DA1 EA started renaming every other studio they owned "bioware (location)?" Notice how quickly they backed off that idea following the mess Bioware made for them? Bioware did a good job of protecting themselves with the LGBTLMAOFA rainbow and diversity pandering thing, ensuring they always have a PR shield to protect them from EA shennanigans, but that wont last forever.
Blake King
Initial sales are determined by the previous installments quality, long tem sales and sales of later installments are determined by the quality of the latest installment. That's how franchises work.
William Barnes
ME1 and DA1 were made before EA acquired both studios. I think EA actually acquired Bioware while at least one of them was under development, but already close to finish, so they couldn't meddle with it. But from then onwards? It was just EA being EA.
Jacob Campbell
I meant studio. 2 games, 1 dev.
Lincoln Hall
Yeah I played ME1 and thought it was incredible but 2 was so bad and I was lurking so I know not to touch 3 when it came out. Same deal with Dragon Age. It just seems so intentional they spend less to make more money. But if it isn't I guess it's corporate asshats being corporate asshats. I don't know why having more money has to equal making worse games.
Joshua Baker
ME:Andromeda will fail because of the amount of resentment that has effectively poisoned the Bioware community to the point that even their own Bioware forums have been shutdown, either due to winding it down due to costs, lack of user engagement, as it probably bled users after the ME3 controversy and the TORtanic or it has become a pre-emptive move to stop another revolt from their abused fanbase (or what's left of them) and/or they know that the writing is on the wall; hence the lack of gameplay footage or meaningful content in order to ensure that they will make back some but not all of the investment that is required for a triple A game to be made. Take for example Dragonage: Inquisition and how "critically acclaimed" it was but without the sale numbers to back it up, failing to chart in the US and other European countries. It's gotten to the point that EA will not be satisfied with having sales of even 3 million units at this point because it needs massive sales numbers to justify their own existence and as soon as Andromeda fails, Bioware will close down and they will get a bunch of Pajeets to make derivative games bearing the old Bioware licenses until they can no longer make any money from it.
It's been five years since the last Mass Efffect and it's rather amusing to see absolutely no marketing push from EA which shows that they have no confidence in the product and is merely being treated as an afterthought or something to write off from their quarterly earnings. It's a massive shame because I was a huge Bioware fan until I finished ME3. It's the only game that I've ever had where after I completed it, I immediately went to the game store to trade it in. I can't believe it's only been five years and I'm still furious at how awful it was. I don't consider myself to be an amazing writer but even a child could understand how utterly awful that ending was because it fails on it's basic premises. Even with the extended DLC, it was a fool's errand to attempt to fix it because there are too many problems that the endings bring up like the whole concept of the machine for instance. Making a machine that you have no idea what it's function is by previous dead civilisations doesn't make sense whatsoever and feels like it was tacked on at the last minute. Much like a lot of the game, it was clear that a lot of it was rushed, textures looked shit, ammo clipped through the floor and the awful pandering to love interests really screwed with everything. There is so much wrong with ME that it blows my mind that anyone would even consider going out and purchasing a copy of it.
That Asari girl with the goofy eyes and Blade Runner stripe across her face will definitely be a completely awful character. I can just imagine what writing they will have for her/it and it'll probably go along the lines of "Fellow Asaris, we no longer should dance on poles for the pleasures of misogynistic, chauvinist aliens! We must overcome and free ourselves from our own bondage and from disgusting entrepreneurs who abuse our nature!"
I think this game will be a definite flop.Such a shame to see something that I previously cared for go out this way but alas, it's the way of the world for things to fall apart.
