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[bentanchorbolt]

DA: Inquisition was a good game IMO
Mass Effect Andromeda, I suspect a lot of the issues from that game had to due with EA forcing their devs at the time to use Frostbite which ended up causing them a lot of issues and as I understand too much dev time during production and post-launch was spent trying to fix a seemingly endless amount of bugs.
Anthem, well there was something really unique and interesting there, unfortunately like so many others the game shipped in a poor state and didn't have the kind of content it should have. Another year in the oven and it probably would have been a hit.

But yeah, disappointing. They used to release nothing but critically acclaimed bangers, some of which were generation defining games. The problem is that none of these games are bad per se, but it's very clear that with more time and better direction they would have been awesome games.

 

[MScarpa]

I will always play Bioware games.

 

[Humdinger]

Pretty disappointing, yeah, but I'll keep playing their games.

Mass Effect: Andromeda sucked. Tried twice to get into it, couldn't. Don't care about Anthem. What else have they done lately? Their last good game was ME3, published in 2012, 10 years ago. Is that right? Nothing since?

Looking forward to the KOTOR remake.

 

[TheDreadLord]

I still would like to play Andromeda planned DLC. Not the best story within the ME universe, but I still found it quite enjoyable.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

Gamefreak peaked in 2012 with Pokemon B2W2 then got worse and worse. I'm just saying.

Also Mass Effect 3 is a passable game but not a good one.

 

[Yoboman]

Yep, as a former bioware fan the fall was fucking tragic. Their last good game was dragon age inquisition and that was a decade ago. It seems like a number of factors caught up with them, the cost and time needed to make these games is far greater than it was when they were making the mass effect trilogy and dragon age 1-3, so when they had two major missteps in a row with andromeda and anthem, they were unable to immediatley recover.

By 2019 when it was clear anthem wasn’t going anywhere, the next dragon age game was still very early in development. It then had to restart development because it was no longer going to be the destiny esque live game they originally envisioned. Mass effect was another beast all togeather. They were ready to let that series die after andromeda bombed, it wasn’t until the legendary editions came out and were beloved that bioware and ea realized that mass effect did not have to die.

So here we are, due to rising dev costs and time, as well as alot of studio mismanagement, bioware simply cannot match the pace of what they were releasing a decade ago. I hope that the next mass effect and dragon age are great, but its clear that when those games do release, they will be the only bioware games this generation.

Triple a development has been permanatley fucked and i dont think that there is a way for big devs like bioware or naughty dog to get out as many games as they used to be able to. The time it took them to make 3 ps3 games is now needed to make one game.

I dunno

I think its their perspective that is warped. They could be releasing a mix of more scaled back experiences that compete with the likes of Divinity Original Sin while having the AAA blockbusters occasionally

It's the one credit I'd give to JRPG developers, they still seem to try to achieve that balance.

 

[Yoboman]

Yup. I'll never forget how they ruined one of the greatest sci-fi universes ever created with that amateur hour unforgivable ending to ME3. DAI was alright, but for the most part they've sucked ass since. One could argue the problems began with DA2, or even further back than that, but really ME3 was the first of their games that pissed a lot of fans off. Andromeda and Anthem were the games that truly showed that not they lost a lot of their talent, and their management was horrible.

So far we've yet to see anything of substance with DA4. We know for a fact it's gone through multiple massive reworks, but the fact that it's almost 2023 and we still haven't seen anything on it leads me to believe they're having the same old management problems. Truth be told Bioware used to be my favorite devs, now they're barely on my radar.

What happened after Mass Effect 2? Did a lot of people leave? Seems like that's where the cracks started to show

 

[Madflavor]

What happened after Mass Effect 2? Did a lot of people leave? Seems like that's where the cracks started to show

They were acquired by Electronic Arts around the time of Dragon Age: Origins, but by that time Origins was far into it's development that it had very little effect aside from it's marketing. ME2 and onward is where they were under their new corporate overlords who instill strict deadlines on them. ME2 was pretty much a miracle win for them. Looking back on it a lot of the problems with Mass Effect started with the 2nd game with the Reaper storyline being sidelined and the dumbing down of RPG elements, but the game itself was great and given the circumstance it was impressive it was as good as it was. DA2 was where the cracks really started to show. Originally it was supposed to be a DLC for Dragon Age: Origins but EA wanted it to be it's own separate game believing it would sell more money, so Bioware were rushed to whip the game up in a year and a half. It really shows when half of that game is revisiting the same areas over and over again throughout the story.

As for Mass Effect 3, EA can certainly be blamed for the game not being fully cooked since they wanted to rush the game out as quickly as possible. In my opinion ME3 at that time needed a minimum of 3.5 years to fully achieve it's potential in the story it was trying to tell. But aside from EA the rest of the blame absolutely goes to the writers. I do know for a fact that ME3's ending was written the way it was because Mac Walters (Lead Writer) and Casey Hudson (Director) shut themselves off from the rest of the team and wrote the entire ending themselves, without allowing any input, feedback, or even general awareness from the rest of the writing team. That normally does not happen. Usually anything that's written is presented to the entire writing staff because it's supposed to be a collaborative effort to make sure everything being written is consistent and lines up with the rest of the story.

After ME3 the founders of Bioware ended up leaving and over time so did more and more of their talent. I believe the root causes of people leaving the company were mainly due to management getting worse, although I'm sure the ME3 ending controversy didn't help. Imagine creating one of the best Sci-Fi universes in fiction, being a part of bringing that story to life for all three games, and then it get's torpedo'd by two guys with big egos writing a horrendous ending, and now the fans are pissed and your company is getting shit on from all corners. It was a bad situation.

Bioware's biggest issue from the past 10 year is it's lack of leadership and poor management. One can argue it started with EA, but the loss of it's founders was were it really started to go bad for them.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Bioware? Really?

I’d say Volition is ten times worse. They ruined Saint’s Row, and Agents of Mayhem was blah.

I’d take Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age Inquisition over that swill any day.

 

[Arsic]

It's a tie between them and blizzard.

Blizzard in the past 10 years had some winner releases.

Diablo 2R automatically doesn’t put them in the Bioware level of drop off. Overwatch, Hearthstone, and StarCraft 2 expansions.

You may not like them as a company like most of us, but they’ve put out bangers.

 

[Belthazar]

I don't think so, they were never that great... They just thrived because mostly everyone else was worse.

 

[Fbh]

Pretty much. Right now Bioware is basically dead to me, have zero hype for any of their upcoming games though I'd love for them to get back to their former glory.

More than anything they need better writers. Gameplay was often not that good in their games but they made up for it with compelling narratives and characters.

Patrick Weekes has gone way off the deep end into the woke cult so expect nothing but woke trash from the new DA

The new ME at least has some potential now that they got Mary DeMarle

 

[MagnesD3]

I'm still mad at the botch of that amazing premise that Andromeda had.

 

[Mozzarella]

Sadly yes.

 

[HYDE]

Their games have always sucked, so they can’t disappoint me.

 

[Handel]

Not even close, considering they made a great game in that time in DAI, which is more than can be said for many other previously great devs. Valve has been doing basically nothing for this past decade, and Konami became a pachinko machine company. Bethesda Games Studio is more disappointing this past decade than Bioware, all we've gotten since Skyrim was a disappointing mainline Fallout in FO4, then one of the biggest disasters of a release in FO76.

 

[Handel]

What happened after Mass Effect 2? Did a lot of people leave? Seems like that's where the cracks started to show

EA happened, in simplest terms. Absurd deadlines causing rushed development, alongside forcing devs to use their Frostbite engine even when it didn't suit the type of game being made. The DAI team had to make tools from scratch within Frostbite because it didn't have tools for RPG systems, it was an engine made for the Battlefield franchise so built with shooters in mind.

 

[JimmyRustler]

I'm replaying the Mass Effect games and it reminded me of how good Bioware once was. If you compare their output from 2013 - 2022 compared to 2003 - 2012 it's insane the drop off

2003-2012:
Neverwinter Nights
KOTOR
Jade Empire
Mass Effect 1, 2 & 3
Dragon Age Origin
Dragon Age 2

2013-22:
Dragon Age Inquisition
Mass Effect Andromeda
Anthem

They were on top of the world and seemingly turned over night into a shadow of themselves

Wow, just one more thread illustrating how dev output has dropped post 360/PS3 gen. This is crazy. What the hell happened? It’s almost like the PS4 dropped and all devs went like…. Boy, we were making games too fast. Lets just take it slow.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

Bizarre to me that EA bought a studio primed to release a Skyrim or Witcher 3 level mega hit with a little TLC and absolutely destroyed it lol

 

[DW74]

ME2 was the last product they made that I consider masterful.

After Anthem. I am fairly sure that their next game had better do very well, or they will be EA'd.

 

[Johnny Concrete]

Wow, just one more thread illustrating how dev output has dropped post 360/PS3 gen. This is crazy. What the hell happened? It’s almost like the PS4 dropped and all devs went like…. Boy, we were making games too fast. Lets just take it slow.

More like: instead of making 4 character models a week we now spend two weeks sculpting just one. Etc

 

[10101]

I’m playing through the Mass Effect trilogy too and I couldn’t agree more OP.

For me it started a bit earlier though with Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2011. Still gutted Galaxies got ditched for that PoS

 

[eastcoastkody]

Bioware? Really?

I’d say Volition is ten times worse. They ruined Saint’s Row, and Agents of Mayhem was blah.

I’d take Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age Inquisition over that swill any day.

Volition went out of business and sold off everything. So im not sure that counts. Because u don't know who made those games.

 

[eastcoastkody]

I'll take Anthem/Inquisition/Andromeda over the 1 game Retro studios bothered to put out 8 years ago. Granted it was supposedly good. But thats all they've made in like 15 years

 

[Coconutt]

Feel stupid about being hyped for Anthem, fooled me hard and will no longer pre-order.

 

[JimmyRustler]

More like: instead of making 4 character models a week we now spend two weeks sculpting just one. Etc

Maybe... but as much as I like graphics, that just ain't worth it. Must be horrible for the devs as well. Instead of spending your time of 3 different projects in 5 years it just 1 now, tops. Riddiculus.

 

[Alexios]

Haven't cared about them in about that long to... care.

 

[Cyborg]

The output is disappointing to say at least

 

[Johnny Concrete]

Maybe... but as much as I like graphics, that just ain't worth it. Must be horrible for the devs as well. Instead of spending your time of 3 different projects in 5 years it just 1 now, tops. Riddiculus.

Yea I would imagine. If this goes on and it takes like 7/8 years to make a game, then you'd probably only make 4/5 games in your career total at some point :{