I don't know why people treat development studios as if they are stagnant entities. The Bioware that made the classics is gone because all of the people are gone. Mike Laidlaw, James Ohlen, Brent Knowles, David Gaider, Casey Hudson, Christina Norman Mac Walters etc. have all stepped down from their positions. Expecting the new people to care about these IPs as much as the original creators is a great way to set yourself up for disappointment, as evidenced by basically every other time it has happened.
It's because it supports the ideals of the young socialist. It's why Matty and other creators are so pro dev. The idea that these small dev teams hold all the cards and are secretly manipulating the giant mega corporations from behind the scenes sounds appealing to them. And then when they harass their fellow employees, of course, its the CEO's fault lol. I know your question was a sarcastic one, but that's the reason nonetheless.
Indeed it is worth noting that modern Bioware also broke features in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so they could not even port that properly, look up ScifiIsMyJam for more info.
I think part of the issue is also the style of writing. The DA series started as "Dark Fantasy" It was bloody, sexy and unafraid. Then it got sanitized and sterilized. Mass Effect was very much an adult sci-fi epic, it was heroic, tragic and gave you the feeling of an almost impossible mission. Anthem and especially Andromeda the writing feels more like a YA novel filled with every possible trope.
Yea, totally agree with this and If I remember it right Bioware even said that wanted to distance themselves from the good old stuff. They didnt find dark fantasy attractive and wanted to do more mainstream stuff. So yea, these idiots actually shot themselves in the foot.
The shift in tone of DA is one of my biggest issues in gaming, more than the change in gameplay style. DA:O got so fucking dark sometimes, abominations were truly scary, even Dragon Age 2 retained some of that when it wanted, but now it's the super elves in shiny armors, the shiny titans, shiny cities. And I say all this despite really enjoying Dragon Age Inquisition. To me Dragon Age ended on a cliffhanger on the Awakening Expasion and what we have later it's a spin-off. Even though we have returning characters I just don't feel I'm playing a continuation.
In other words, go woke go broke. The new Bioware said fuck you to the old fans, so let the new people or whomever their new target audience finance their next pile of crap
It truly saddens me to think we could never get another Mass Effect if this game flops. But the harsh reality is that if it flops it proves BioWare will never be the same and that it’s probably for the best. It’s so sad because they revolutionized storytelling and choice based stories. They’ve never been under the microscope more than now.
In the event that EA does dissolve BioWare, I highly doubt they will put the Mass Effect franchise on ice, especially with the success of Legendary Edition showing that there is plenty of interest still. I think it's very likely that they'll give the IP to another studio under their umbrella to produce more games in the future. Whether this is a good or terrible thing is anyone's guess at this point. As a lot of people have pointed out, most of the talent behind the original trilogy's success is no longer even at BioWare, so giving the IP to another studio might just revitalize it. On the other hand, it could go to a studio that totally fails to understand the franchise or one that milks the IP for all its worth with cash grab releases.
Part of it is kind of bad timing and bad decisions. EA let greed get the best of them. I’m sure they pushed bioware to go live service with anthem and now dragon age. They’re trying to get that bag. However in the process they compromised their fan hides twice in a row now. Two flops from dedicating to a live service. Now that they rolled back their next title of dragon age will probably suffer a huge identity crisis. Now EA is wanting Bioware to stick to single player. It’s probably too late. However EA will have to pay out to push mass effect as a single player game. Whether they do or not remains to be seen.
@@danbooke2001 The next game (the 5th game in the series) gets referred to as 'Mass Effect 5' by BioWare folk (as well as their own code-name, rumoured to be 'Bowie') (it's unlikely to actually have a number or course, it'll have a title like Andromeda.). And given that the game will make reference to ME Andromeda (confirmed by the game director) then calling it '4' makes literally no sense. So no. 'Mass Effect 5' is more correct, at least for now.
Considering the gameplay we saw, although super short clips, it most def did not look return to form. Instead, looked like it was trying to be a copycat of other action games. Hopefully that was super early footage and the heart and soul of dragon age is still there🙏
@@Captain.AmericaV1 I don't think it's fair to say that they are 'grifters'. I do think it's fair to say that they fundamentally misunderstand what made their earlier games great and that EA has dicked them over a lot. The confluence of those two things adequately explains why they haven't put out anything great in a while.
@@yupperdude1 I really don't understand this. Why are you so averse to faster paced action style combat? Inquisition has it, and it's still a great rpg with choices, buildmaking, progression etc, and it only got even better with trespasser. People seem to think you can't have fast paced combat and still be an rpg, but it's just not true in the slightest. Seems like a lot of people think anything that isn't origins will never be good
While technically Dragon Age 4 has been in development since 2015, it has gone through two separate re-sets. It started out as a single player game under Mike Laidlaw before EA pushed them to change it to a Live Service game, causing him to leave and start Ywllow Brick games. Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah guided it for a while as Project Morrison before Respawn changed the math with their Jedi game. Per reports, EA cleaned the slate in 2021 and said take what you can of the old development and give us a Single player game...again. So, while DA4 has a long dev history, there are lot of fits and starts. EA has their own responsibility for BioWare's release issues. They allowed Andromeda to be played in 10hr early access demo on EA Play prior to the day 1 patch. That gave people a a whole week to meme this shit out of it and stall it's momentum. With Anthem, EA did the same thing...gave pre-patch early access on an unfinished game
Exactly this. It hasn't had 8 years development because it changed into 'Marvel Avengers does Dragon Age' for a time before EA realised that was probably a bad idea and reverted it to a single-player project.
Dreadwolf is not the first, nor will be the last, game to go through development hell in the same way. And I can't think of a single one of those games that did well.
@Sevrin Tiger Dragon Age Origins began development in Nov 2002 as successor to Baldur's Gate but it was so unfocused that Mass Effect's development in 2004 superceded it in priority and DAO really didn't get the boost it needed until EA bought BioWare in 2007. This is without issues related to engine issues or live service. Afterwards, they were able to release DA Awakenings and DA2 (16 month dev time) pretty quickly as they just patch-worked the Eclipse Engine into the Lycium Engine. If EA stuck with Laidlaw's original single player vision in 2017, you'd already have Dreadwolf but they wanted a Assassin's Creed-esque continuous live service game so they re-set it and set the game on the development course we see now. Recognizing they F'd up is likely why EA approved a re-vamp of the game and wiped the slate clean in terms of previous cost the both Project Joplin and Morrison
If only Bioware had been less desperate to get Anthem out of the door and had put more effort and manpower in development of Andoromeda, they would be in a MUCH better spot right now. But no - They HAD to put all their best manpower and resources in that bloody Anthem pet project (that I predicted to fail, and lost all interest in, the very moment I heard it would be a Game-As-A-Service Multiplayer pile of garbage). If they had taken their time to get a decent Mass Effect title out of the door, that had bought them time to concentrate on that Anthem stuff, things had gone VERY different. And here we are - By those bad decisions we now have two bad games, and one of them (Andromeda) is not even decently finished because of those missing DLC's with the rest of the story...
So much this! Writers and talent are long gone that made past fan favorites. Much the same for Obsidian in fact. Companies are collections of talent. Baldures Gate 3 is more like DAO tbh.
Bioware went from one of my fav game companies to a company i completely forgot existed........i dont know what going on with them but i hope they can find some True Bioware Magic and return to delivering amazing rpg games
They were the most surefire company back in the early 2000s. Their Star Wars and Mass Effect early games were insane. Then they just up and fell off a cliff.
When you have two back to back massive flops , that tends to happen. Dragon Age 3 didn't do all that well either and mass effect 3 had a disappointing ending that hurt their reputation as well.
@@twistedinnocence8617 ...Inquisition was Bioware's most successful game ever. You're allowed to dislike it, but saying that it "didn't do all that well" is just plain wrong.
@@benl2140 I meant that it failed to reach expectations. It was successful but I believed they called it disappointing as afar as sales and reviews. Mass effect 3 actually sold more. They expected more from it. I love the game. Definitely better than dragon Age 2.
Matty you’re spot on with this. What comes out next could really define BioWare’s legacy in more ways than one. I was one of those that jumped in feet first for both Andromeda and Anthem not liking the bitter taste left after both games were shelved before the potential could have been realized. Flashback to Dragon Age 2. I’m on the fence with BioWare right now not wanting to be the Charlie Brown to their Lucy having that proverbial football snatched away yet again. 😑
I have no idea whats wrong with Bioware - DAI was a huge success and a good mix of the styles of DA1/2 in a more open setting... It was awesome, so why not just work with that framework and just tweak and polish and make a sequel from that... The fact they seemed to throw it all out and start from stratch is insane to me...
The problem with 6+ year dev cycles is by the time you're near completion, the tech and assets made from the first 2 years are already obsolete. Cyberpunk2077 exemplified this issue.
Nah. CP was rushed by greedy investors and whiny gamers. Game could’ve used another 6 month delay but people cried too hard. Look at the game now: a banger.
I unfortunately think that its going to fail. Not necessarily because of the leaks. Just because of the pattern that’s repeating itself(andromeda, anthem having similar stories) Now Mark Darrah said on his channel that when he left it was shaping up nicely, but I doubt that he would say if it wasn’t. On the otherhand origins also had an incredibly rocky development so i guess there is a slight hope.
I am not that optimistic about it either but all DA games had rocky developments and all of them turned out well enough. I heard that when they were working on Origins and 2, they were more rushed than they are now. When Inquisition was being developed, they had to work on the Frostbite engine, which is essentially for fps games. They managed to create a medieval rpg out of it anyway. BioWare had also never failed dramatically in Dragon Age, not yet anyway. People might argue that 2 was a little underwhelming but we must consider that it was supposed to be a spin-off game originally named Exodus, not a direct sequel.
Origins was also a much smaller game made my a much smaller team. It was much easier to salvage a project 15 years ago vs today with how complex games are and the massive teams they require. As for dreadwolf, it may be good, it may be bad. Ultimately tho it doesn’t matter. The BioWare of today is a completely different studio with completely different people. The people that made origins are long gone. We will never get to see what an actual DA4 by Mike Laidlaw would have been
Indeed it is worth noting that modern Bioware also broke features in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so they could not even port that properly, look up ScifiIsMyJam for more info.
Please don't ask for the IP to be tarnished, current Bioware aren't capable of tying their own shoelaces let alone make a sequel to Jade Empire that isn't atrocious.
@@Spr1ggan87 I agree completely to be fair I wasn't asking. Just say Jade Empire is a great game and deserves more acknowledgement as well as recognition. It's most definitely a Gem! I personally gave up on Bioware after their last 2 games. And I've given up on Halo after Infinite being abandoned....
@@nbleys5696 Yeah pretty much the same as me. I don't even know what you do with Bioware or their IP if you're EA now. I mean i guess Respawn could make really good Mass Effect entries. Personally i hope they sell the IP to MicroSoft, then Obsidian could work on DA titles.
I love BioWare and I'm a big fan of the Dragon Age series. What worries me is that I don't know if Dragon Age can pull the big numbers that EA would want them to.
Depends on what they want. DA had never sold 10+ million copies, so if that's the target goal, then the game is already doomed. If I'm not mistaken that was what they expected from Dead Space 3, even though that series also never sold that much before. They have to have actual realistic goals. DA usually moves 3-4 million copies...that should be the goal. If it sells more, then great. But if they expected Elden Ring or God of War numbers, then Dragon Age is screwed.
@@Runforestrun That's usually the problem when big companies buy a smaller company. They have insane expactations. Just like how Amazon ruined comixiology.
Here's what I think about the new Dragon Age game: They have a big job ahead of them to create compelling characters, such as Hawke, Dorian, Cullen, and Varric, to name a few. I also enjoyed Andromeda, although it had its WTF moments, such as Scott Ryder's clumsy attempts at bedding everyone on his crew. Kinda creepy, I thought, and it caused me to think back with nostalgia at how hard you had to work to romance, Kaidan or Tali.
The problem is the EA management. Their desire to push live service into Dragon Age totally F’d up the development cycle. Basically a poison pill, finally realizing that a more classic rpg was the proper course only gave a wounded project freedom to try and reach the promised land; without providing an antidote to the poison. Hopefully the creative talents can regroup somewhere under management who believe that a great rpg will make player happy and thus prove more than profitable.
I just really hope they keep nuanced decisions intact in Dragon Age. Similar to The Witcher, you often didn’t know what outcome would come from your decisions, even if they’re well intended. REALLY hope they don’t boil down their role-playing into “obvious good options” and “obvious bad options”
Those successful RPGs you mentioned all used the Unreal engine. One of Bioware's hugest problems arose when EA forced them to use the Frostbite Engine and the team had to practically re-invent the engine to get it to work with an RPG format.
Keep expectations low. It just needs to be FUN!! A compelling story would be great too. They don't have to change the DA formula too much. Just update everything from gameplay to graphics and remember to incorporate players decisions into the game. The element of hard choices and consequences is at the core of Dragon Age and Mass Effect. They nail that, we'll be GOOD!
We also have to remember that Bioware themselves, outside of EA's influence, struggle in managing themselves and their own people. Bioware "magic" was just a huge sugar coated backwards way of saying exhausting amounts of overtime leading to burnout and departures. EA provides outside pressure but Bioware have been slowly destroying themselves from lack of management and leadership for years now. Respawn have leadership and a clear direction of where they want to take their games. Bioware always seems to be playing catch-up. Whereas Respawn was able to wade in to the SP market and stand firm, Bioware is still trying to get in. IMO.
I hope this will a return to form for them. I love BioWare storytelling and I haven’t found any other company that makes games I love more. Other than anthem I haven’t disliked any BioWare games I’ve played. Hoping for the best. Honestly I’d love a dragon age origins and 2 remake for new hardware. My biggest fear of BioWare did fall apart is the lack of true single player rpg games. I haven’t found any other single player games that capture that niche. Like Bethesda is the closest thing in my opinion but I can’t stomach those games tbh
BioWare’s only recent success since Inquisition is Mass Effect Legendary Edition. After reading the recent Dragon Age comics and watching the tv show I think the story seems to be going a good direction so far. Hopefully Dread Wolf Rises can pull BioWare out of this mess. I’m still worried they might screw up on Solas as an antagonist though and so much people leaving isn’t a good sign.
If Bioware confirm that ME4 is a continuation of the trilogy with Shep as the PC, I will gladly pay the preorder and wait as long as it takes. They have everything they need, all the assets, are there, in Unreal already, which should port well to Unreal 5. They just need a STELLAR story. Because the stories are why we all love Bioware, right?
EA: We want online features in all our games! Bioware: We've always wanted to make a multiplayer Dragon Age EA after Fallen Order: We no longer require games to be multiplayer Bioware: Dragon age will be reworked to be a single player game.
Andromeda was written by a bunch of highschool edgelords, it was godawful. Biowares major problem is the loss of their entire legacy writing team....they will never return to the quality they had. I grew up loving Kotor and every single thing they put out, but lets face it their writing has been shit since ME 2.
I loved Bioware back in the day. TTheir games have always been my favorites. From Balders Gate to Jade Empire to Dragon Age and then the Mass Effect trilogy. But lets be honest. This is not the same Bioware of old. The folks who created that Bioware magic as its called, are all long gone. They're Bioware in name only. I was very disappointed in the DA4 leaks. Perhaps Biowares time is up and it might better to start licensing their IP out to more capable studios.
BioWare is just a generic AAA developer now: - overly farcical dialogue - fast-paced, easy combat - maximally superficial RPG features like upgrading gear and unlocking abilities - a cluttered HUD with absolutely everything labeled - simple puzzles that characters spoil with obvious hints I’m 90% confident this will basically be Dreadwolf.
Indeed it is worth noting that modern Bioware also broke features in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so they could not even port that properly, look up ScifiIsMyJam for more info.
When the info about the new combat in Dreadwolf arrived, I lost all interest in it. I agree, it will probably be a mid game that tries super hard to be mainstream
I hope Dragon Age 4 closes the story of the Dreadwolf in a satisfying way, but overall I have many, MANY gripes with the road the series took after Origins. Not only in gameplay but also the scope and overall feel
It’s a shame really, but a lot of the people that made Bioware what it was isn’t there anymore. DA4 will be the tell if they can actually make good games anymore.
I’d like to see BioWare produce traditional single player games. I just hope DreadWolf will not disappoint, but I don’t want to give my hopes up. I can see the struggle of the DA’s combat system after being changed multiple times. I do hope Dread Wolf finds its own path, in it’s traditional combat system that we all enjoyed and endured since Origins.
Bioware has had a bad track record lately. Some of that can be blamed on EA's intervention but not all of it. Bioware has, by all accounts, lost much of the old magic they once had. People want good Bioware games again and they will suffer EA if that's what it takes to get them, nobody is going to not 'give it a chance' just because EA's logo is on the thing but Bioware has an uphill battle to prove themselves capable right now. Everyone here would love for Dreadwolf and ME4 to be bangers but we are all very reasonably cynical about that possibility.
Indeed it is worth noting that modern Bioware also broke features in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so they could not even port that properly, look up ScifiIsMyJam for more info.
Bioware has always treated Dragon Age as their "experimental" branch... I'm not surprised at all they did what they did with Dreadwolf. Ever since DA2 at the least this has been the case. You can 100% see inquisition ideas in Andromeda, for example, after they (IMO) wrongly interpreted inquisition to have done well when in reality it was a decent game in one of the worst years of gaming known to humans 😅. Even if dreadwolf fails, you'll see the clear influences over their next big title, that being the next mass effect.
ya I thought DAI was...okay? When people talk about Bioware coming up short last gen, I see mostly just Andromeda and Anthem brought up. But for me, It definitely started with Inquisition which just didn't really stick with me. It was better than the other two I would say(didn't play Anthem but I feel I got the idea from reviews), but it still didn't really have that classic Bioware magic imo. Story was kind of meh/average and structured in a really annoying way by making you do what should have been side content in order to actually progress. Side quests were mostly boring and repetitive. Companions were alright but definitely nowhere Bioware's best. Also in my personal opinion, the voiced acted protagonist didn't feel truly necessary.
@@Joshcoshbagosh Agreed. The things that turned me off to Andromeda definitely stemmed from things in Inquisition but it also didn't have some of the better features from Inquisition either. It does seem like DA is sort of a testing ground for new ideas, which unfortunately means Dreadwolf is going to be riddled with problems and if Bioware survives long enough (and learns the right lessons), ME4 might be 'ok'.
Indeed it is worth noting that modern Bioware also broke features in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so they could not even port that properly, look up ScifiIsMyJam for more info.
@@BlueMarsalis i didn't think it was bad, but I definitely had a lot of issues with it. It strayed too far from Bioware's classic formula imo. I think they should also stick with smaller game worlds and more linear level design. Because they have shown a few times now that they really don't know how to do open world(or at least semi open world) properly
Imagine if Bioware actually developed one idea for 8 years. There last 3 games were basically remade halfway or even late into development. They've been making Dreadwolf for 8 years, but I would guess it's more like 4 or 5.
The once mighty BioWare from 1997-2012(ish) is long gone. All of those talented people who built the company have long since left. Probably best to just accept that fact and lower your expectations from BioWare, like really lower.
@@MerrillDragonAge What are you talking about? Greg Zeschuk, Ray Muzyka, Trent Oster, Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn, James Ohlen, Mike Laidlaw, Mark Darrah, David Gaider, and many others that made the company great during BioWare’s glory days are gone.
@@MerrillDragonAge And some of those names were major players in Bioware's Dragon Age, James Ohlen, David Gaider, Mike Laidlaw, and Mark Darrah are gone. These were the creative minds behind Dragon Age. Do you honestly think current Bioware has the same talent level to replace these legendary developers? After Andromeda and Anthem? Not sure what your point is.
I appreciate your video and topic of discussion here Matty . To me I think we over complicate what is so very simple and it is this : entertainment at its core is escapism! That’s it . Entertainment is meant to give you a breath of fresh air, to allow you to experience something for a limited time/window that is separate from your current every day 24 seven experiences/routines. It is what makes entertainment such a important aspect and human life, regardless of what form it takes. Because it takes you out of the monotony and routine of your overwhelming daily experiences to give you a separate and new/different experience for a small time. Our culture through social media has adopted this main stream approach that over many recent years now has become more and more injected into everything and then normalized. Because of social medias integration into literally everything we are around disguised as conveniences, entertainment is naturally another place that main stream pushes it into as if a normal expectation. All it is is the disingenuous, insecure desire for attention for different selfish reasons….. but this is why you see so much current culture of main stream bullshit infesting everything in entertainment whether it’s sports or movies or shows or games. It’s either individuals wanting selfish attention, so prioritizing themselves or their agenda into the entertainment or it is a companies, disingenuous pandering desire to appease those main stream narratives for delusional, non-consumer pats on the back. And all of this is bad as it is not entertaining. When we think of entertainment, we don’t think of our jobs, or our every day, social media, experience, or whatever main stream narrative you can think of. Current culture relevancy is not entertaining, escapism is entertaining! But more and more we see priority, being placed on current culture, relativism and escapism, becoming less and less and less, if not there at all….. and escapism is the only form that actual entertainment takes. Which means you have less and less and less entertainment, if any at all. And all of this occurs, because the majority of consumers in our cultural climate have become so spoiled by their instant gratification, addictions, and so complacent that they are willing to settle every step of the way. It doesn’t even matter if it is a lazy placebo, they will internally project that instant gratification onto the placebo to make it satiate their addiction in some form or another , even if it only last a couple weeks. This kind of mentality enables these companies and individuals to continue pandering to current culture, main stream, narratives or selfish self, seeking attention, and get away with it because they’re maintaining access to your eyeballs and wallets. And as long as that is maintained, because ultimately, that is the only goal that the company cares about, they will continue to try and have their cake and eat it too. and it goes from very subtle prioritization is added into the entertainment, which then turns into where we are now with blatant obvious prioritization’s injected into it. Straight up removing entertainment in jarring ways, because the escapism is gone and replaced with the current cultural relevancy’s . The only way to course correct this and return to what we had a decade ago in a decade before then which was just escapism whether it was the super Nintendo, N64, genesis, Dreamcast, PlayStation, original Xbox, ….. we have to stop giving these blatant exploitation’s and hijacking of so-called entertainment any of our eyeballs or wallets. Consumers are actually the ones that hold these entities accountable. Because they decide whether they get the profit they’re looking for or not. Granted it might hurt at the beginning because those instant gratification addictions and complacencies are so great at this point… But in refusing access to consumer, eyeballs and wallets, the companies will almost instantaneously go in the opposite direction. They are a custom to right now with their decision making. Because ultimately all they care about is profit and if you refuse that for what they are doing, then they will stop doing it. They will prioritize whatever you want them to prioritize, in order to gain access to your eyeballs and wallets. And if that priority is completely and solely escapism, for the sake of entertainment, then that is the only damn thing they will give you. They will return to those entertainment fundamentals. They used to know in the early days because of wanting access to your eyeballs and wallets. There will always be the desire to exploit, or move the bar, so to speak, which is how current cultural relevancy’s get implemented into entertainment, and when those signs occur, it is up to the consumer to have the spine enough to check the company by reminding them what they want from them, and what they will lose if they do not provide it. It’s the same principle that works in every day life with everything. The consumer set the bar. So stop settling for this bullshit of individuals and companies hijacking entertainment to use it like an extension of their social media pages and use your eyeballs and wallets to demand that entertainment be about escapism and only that. And if you do that we will return entertainment to being what it is meant to be with these multi billion dollar companies using their incomprehensible amounts of resources and finances, geared solely and completely to entertainment/escapism. Which is how you realize the full potential that these projects have if that priority is there from consumers. For multi billion dollar companies, this is easily done if you have the spine to demand . And for the sake of these projects, and the potential they have… I hope you eventually do because what you settle for, is so astronomically far less than what they could be.
Bioware has been dead for a decade now. Their last good RPG(in my opinion) was Mass Effect 3, though they peaked with Mass Effect 2. Dragon Age: Inquisition was such an average game and nothing else they've made since has come close to even that.
I think one of the prime things that really made Bioware great was they published thier own games. Every game released "when it was done", and they didn't have a parent company pushing them to do things... like release a game in 18 months (Dragon Age 2) or to make a game centered around "live service" (Anthem).
If people still play the trash Bethesda Softworks churns out, I think BioWare will do just fine. It’s literally impossible the next Dragon Age game can debut any more broken or half finished than starfield, so yeah. It’ll do fine.
As someone who has done contract story and narrative experience testing for game companies, BioWare included, one thing you have to look at is the cost center aspect. EA is a publisher, BioWare is a studio. (Actually, multiple studios.) All decisions by EA relative to their studios has to do with promises made by the product teams (at the studios) in terms of what they can deliver and in what timeframes. Consider how badly this worked out with SWTOR, as one example. And yet, even with that, the game is still a pretty good cash cow for them. BioWare's cost center has reduced over time. And because of that reduction that means it takes longer to get these games out. (You have less resources in your cost center to spread around.) So it becomes an interesting dynamic between studio and publisher and can lead to interesting death spirals of internal funding and resources that sabotage game development.
I do really get what you mean by there by mismanaging projects despite a game being good and generally well received. Bioshock Infinite was really fun I thought! But it felt so cut from that E3 demo we saw in like 2011-2012, looked absolutely insane, Elizabeth looked different, you could actually have a boss fight with the giant bird, etc, they make really impressive demos but the game comes out and it's really good but not as good as that trailer
I am very worried. As it stands, this will be the first dragon age that I will not buy on release, but wait for all the reviews and what people say about it.
Ngl when they showed that last cinematic at the end of last year it was really annoying cause it basically told us nothing. Everyone knows it's about Solas, and the last thing we needed was more narrated artwork instead of something more substantial. Obviously I want them to take their time but the long periods of nothing/silence only to get info that we already know is super annoying. The best we've got were the codex entries. I really wish that they'd at least share some more details about the game that we don't know even if they can't show us yet. I dearly love this series and hope they don't mess this up. Dragon Age fans have been starved for too long...
I used to think that DA4 was BioWare's last chance as a company. But now that a new Mass Effect is in development, I think THAT is BioWare's last chance. However, DA4 will still be Dragon Age's last chance as a game series, and it is going to need to be a grand slam of a game.
If dreadwolf flops because of story ,gameplay, buggy launch then ME will probably be the same. That’s why ME’s success also rides on dreadwolf’s success. And vise versa if dreadwolf slaps then ME is most likely gonna be a banger too
I really feel for the people of BioWare because I bet there’s loads going on and being said but they have to maintain client confidentiality and not say anything
i've been worried about Bioware since Andromeda, i know others liked it, much like CP2077, but much like that game, it plays different for different people, and then you look at Anthem, and all these changes we've heard about Dreadwolf, with still no clear sign of a release, you gotta wonder if they're worth it, even as a fan
Agree that the extremely long development cycles have been more damaging than the misses (Andromeda, Anthem). Even great artists put out a clunker now and then, especially if they are deliberately aiming for something different than what they have succeeded with in the past, and BioWare has WAY more home runs than bunts. The trick is to follow up your successes, sure, but to follow up your failures even faster. The last thing you want is the last taste in the mouth, the bad taste, to linger.
I didn't get andromida till later and I loved the game.Anthem had really fun gameplay but the story was too limited I wish that had gotten proper love.
It is a good and bad thing. On one hand we potentially get games like Red Dead 2, and on the other, we get soulless games that need to meet investor needs.
🙄 If companies would stop changing course halfway through or 3/4 of the way through, you wouldn't have that issue with development lengths and release quality. When you also have them trying to literally squeeze every dime out of the consumers wallets with whatever shifty business practices, and either story changes and lack of true leaders behind the scenes, all these things can lead to a game being released at crappy quality. Or it seems like they just did the bare minimum to get the game out by the deadline. Which also can cramp a studio on a project. Indies can and have failed from similar experiences. If you go into development without a clear plan AND a way to change course without compromising the game quality and release date (by much), you're going to run into problems. Bending to the big wigs in terms of micro-transactions or whatever else or major storyline rewrites last minute or even early on, can also screw a game. Directors, designers, etc. have all left studios or games for such reasons and others that im not going to get into, either during development or afterward. Sometimes, these games don't have enough time in the oven for the amount of strife that these companies put the development studios through. It shouldn't be about making a game to meet the companies needs or wants but making a game to meet the development studios' needs or wants. Have a clear plan, make the games actual games, leave politics OUT of it, don't micro-manage your studio, be involved but hover over your studio(play test but don't actually stand over someone's shoulder as they work), F**K micro-transactions, promote the game well but don't spoil the story, get your fan-base involved and hear them out (surveys for what they like, miss seeing in games, want to see more of in games, or less of in games), keep your studio happy and have a safe healthy work environment for everyone.
I can see bioware either being merged with an existing studio or dismantled entirely if this game does not meet EAs expectations, even if it's a critical success or enjoyed by fans.
Opinion here, but I truly believe that artistic creative outlet obviously has been strangled by corporate companies so interesting in new ideas, never get to flourish. Everyone thinks in terms of finances nowadays, so no one will even be willing to listen to something new or even let that idea out. That’s why the era of remakes and remasters is so massive sadly. Every new game now just looks like a hatched version of something before. Indie studios are the last line of creativity, but unfortunately, they never will have the budget team or talent to create some thing that can actually crack massive studios or they will be bought out and that would be the last we see if that Creativity.
Matty your forgetting Bioware has STOWR which is still generating money and is one of the longer running MMOs. You also forgot to mention Titanfall for Respawn and the linking it has to Apex. Respawn has also had some issues along the way like MoH and they are basically going to be taking over Battlefield and possibly absorbing DICE so that studio is pretty much tapped.
This is the consequence of over-production in game development, where they try to shoot mini movies for the cutscenes, hiring famous faces and everything has to go through 3 layers of a committee like it's a city council debating what their new town flag should be, all for a single-player game.
True, but I bet RDR2 staff used their time better. I often see these problems being lack of leadership or lack of cracking the whip on employees to nail down what the game is going to be in pre-production and beginning of production.
Company names are not the people who make the company, not once said companies become a gear in a corporate environment where every gear needs to deliver and produce not revenue, but profit/margins. Bioware is a name, there's loads of amazing people working at current Bioware (like in all companies), but the ones who made the name what it is today are gone.
The issue with the gameplay changes through the years is that Origins fans want a classic tactical RPG and newer fans want an more Action styled RPG. Sadly the money is in the Action RPG genre.
great video, my biggest concern is with the writing, along with the trend chasing identity crisis. I will play Baldurs gate 3 for my dark fantasy setting game with deep lore, and will be waiting till way after launch for dread wolf. I just don't trust bioware anymore, and haven't for a long time.
baldurs gate is anything but not a dark fantasy, in the forgotten realm setting there can be some dark themes however is still an amalgamations of tropes and really high fantasy stuff , like the astral sea, thousand of races and the dozens of alternate dimensions.
@@nicolocorbellani9807 tru enough,maybe dark was the wrong word choice. I just found the writing in inquisition to be soulless, where as the divinity series or bg3 even in it's current state has depth, at least for me. Inquisition, andromeda, anthem all missed the mark (again just for me).
@@cdubyaxvi3614 i really liked the writing of inquisition, especially the whole theme of the search for a divine cause and the exploration of what is faith? Are the gods/god real?can be faith good or bad for society? How fanaticism develops?etc. Also the new lore about the elven empire and the dwarven empire is great, it adds a lot of dephts to the setting.
It's a shame because Bioware has the IP's to make great games they just can't seem to nail development and management properly. For some reason there is always development troubles with their games.
There's the old philosophical parable about a ship. If you have a ship named bioware and a plank on the deck goes bad, you will replace it. Say a board underneath goes bad and you replace it. The mast falls down and you replace it. If all of the original pieces of the ship are replaced, is it the original ship? Can you truly call it bioware? No. Not in this case. Everything that made that company great is gone. Clearly the same people who made baldur's gate and Mass effect, not to mention dragon age origins, are long gone. Sad to say, but that company no longer exists.
It really is tragic what they did to the Mass Effect trilogy. They’re sitting on millions. They should let Respawn make Mass Effect from now on or at least have respawn be in charge of BioWare.
I've already made peace in my mind that BioWare doesn't exist anymore. Not the one I loved in 2007-2012. It is but a husk, controlled by a robotic overlord which has drained it of all its talent and will, and left behind a grotesque, moving corpse.
Lets see them make more excuses like the ones they did for Dwarf romance [pretty much saying that anyone that wanted Dwarven romances were just creepy fetishists]
Even though Mass Effect Legendary Edition was a success, I think they dropped the ball, not once, but twice with the lack of multiplayer. When MELE first dropped and without it, there was decent amount of feedback to bring that back. What Bioware should have done (last year on november the 7th aka N7 day, about a year later) was to surprise the community by announcing it's return. Which would not only make old fans return to the series yet again, but most of all since MELE became a free game of the month via PSN shortly after. Which brought in a lot of new fans to the franchise that has yet to experience MP and how to play like an asari, volus or a collector etc. ME3 MP was a massive hit back in the day and I think it would be somewhat a hit again under these circumstances and with a good trailer behind it. The loot boxes which was actually not too pricey, (if they kept the prices somewhat similar) would also be a nice profit to Bioware and be well worth the update. However, it was a good idea to drop the war asset thing, but MP should've made a return as a stand alone thing.
I dont have any attachments to Bioware. If Dragon age flops, i still dont think EA should shut the entire studio down. They should downsize it and make it a support studio, while also letting them just make smaller games (AA) with reasonable budgets and time lines. If Bioware is still a competent studio they should be able to make good games, despite the size or budget. For example Obsidian makes all kinds of games and all of them are well received, because they are just good at what they do.
Honestly, the biggest problem with Anthem was the lack of endgame content. Once you beat the game within 1-3 days, there wasn’t anything to do. To copy destiny’s terminology: there were no strikes, raids, vaults, etc. that were compelling enough to keep players around. The progression system was also very lackluster due to this. You’d barely be able to get unique, higher power weapons from the one “strike” that they had on launch, or by replaying the main story with friends on a harder difficulty. A shame because the gameplay was so incredibly fun.
Honestly, from EVERYONE I know, there's either no excitement for Dragon Age, a vague knowledge of the franchise or it's just not something people care about...AT ALL. And these are people that like RPGs. I feel a flop is on the horizon, at least commercial. Dragon Age isn't an IP that connects to the masses and for a game that's been in development for sooo long, that's a HUGE problem.
If they are making a direction change as a developement studio, I'd say it's fine, but it needs to be great. They clearly aren't the Bioware they used to be, so they really NEED to find that new identity with this Dragon Age. If they fail, I actually agree and think this will be their end.
Biowares fate was already sealed years ago, when they have lost their course after Mass Effect 3 with their experiments Project Dylan called later Anthem, then the disaster I would say with Andromeda which turned many players off and the beginning of the big wave of goodbyes by the veterans. The bioware of old is already gone and the New Bioware has to proove their worth....
BioWare was kings when Bethesda was only funny enthusiasts 🥴 Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast expansion 1998 on 5 CDs when StarCraft was 180mb hohoho we hope that they'll survive and Diablo has only save and quit while in BG I had 178 saves to experiment with branches and choices
I don't know why people treat development studios as if they are stagnant entities. The Bioware that made the classics is gone because all of the people are gone. Mike Laidlaw, James Ohlen, Brent Knowles, David Gaider, Casey Hudson, Christina Norman Mac Walters etc. have all stepped down from their positions. Expecting the new people to care about these IPs as much as the original creators is a great way to set yourself up for disappointment, as evidenced by basically every other time it has happened.
It's because it supports the ideals of the young socialist. It's why Matty and other creators are so pro dev. The idea that these small dev teams hold all the cards and are secretly manipulating the giant mega corporations from behind the scenes sounds appealing to them. And then when they harass their fellow employees, of course, its the CEO's fault lol. I know your question was a sarcastic one, but that's the reason nonetheless.
Indeed it is worth noting that modern Bioware also broke features in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so they could not even port that properly, look up ScifiIsMyJam for more info.
@@isturbo1984 You need help my man, unless this is bait in which case good job keep it up lmao
Exactly.
That Bioware is dead and gone...and never coming back.
What you see now is Bioware in name only.
Excuse me! You cannot forget Drew MF Karpyshyn!
I think part of the issue is also the style of writing. The DA series started as "Dark Fantasy" It was bloody, sexy and unafraid. Then it got sanitized and sterilized. Mass Effect was very much an adult sci-fi epic, it was heroic, tragic and gave you the feeling of an almost impossible mission. Anthem and especially Andromeda the writing feels more like a YA novel filled with every possible trope.
Yea, totally agree with this and If I remember it right Bioware even said that wanted to distance themselves from the good old stuff.
They didnt find dark fantasy attractive and wanted to do more mainstream stuff. So yea, these idiots actually shot themselves in the foot.
The shift in tone of DA is one of my biggest issues in gaming, more than the change in gameplay style. DA:O got so fucking dark sometimes, abominations were truly scary, even Dragon Age 2 retained some of that when it wanted, but now it's the super elves in shiny armors, the shiny titans, shiny cities. And I say all this despite really enjoying Dragon Age Inquisition.
To me Dragon Age ended on a cliffhanger on the Awakening Expasion and what we have later it's a spin-off. Even though we have returning characters I just don't feel I'm playing a continuation.
In other words, go woke go broke. The new Bioware said fuck you to the old fans, so let the new people or whomever their new target audience finance their next pile of crap
@@mcmarkmarkson7115 Inquisition is the most succesful launch in Bioware's history, but thanks for the most braindead take possible.
@@RockoEstalon that's from 10 years ago. Most of those people that worked on Inquisition are gone, moron.
It truly saddens me to think we could never get another Mass Effect if this game flops.
But the harsh reality is that if it flops it proves BioWare will never be the same and that it’s probably for the best.
It’s so sad because they revolutionized storytelling and choice based stories. They’ve never been under the microscope more than now.
In the event that EA does dissolve BioWare, I highly doubt they will put the Mass Effect franchise on ice, especially with the success of Legendary Edition showing that there is plenty of interest still. I think it's very likely that they'll give the IP to another studio under their umbrella to produce more games in the future.
Whether this is a good or terrible thing is anyone's guess at this point. As a lot of people have pointed out, most of the talent behind the original trilogy's success is no longer even at BioWare, so giving the IP to another studio might just revitalize it. On the other hand, it could go to a studio that totally fails to understand the franchise or one that milks the IP for all its worth with cash grab releases.
Part of it is kind of bad timing and bad decisions. EA let greed get the best of them. I’m sure they pushed bioware to go live service with anthem and now dragon age. They’re trying to get that bag. However in the process they compromised their fan hides twice in a row now. Two flops from dedicating to a live service. Now that they rolled back their next title of dragon age will probably suffer a huge identity crisis. Now EA is wanting Bioware to stick to single player. It’s probably too late. However EA will have to pay out to push mass effect as a single player game. Whether they do or not remains to be seen.
If Dragon Age flops I think that will have zero impact on Mass Effect 5 releasing, but it could have its budget curtailed.
@@sofajockeyUK You mean Mass Effect 4. Andromeda is not 4 just fyi.
@@danbooke2001 The next game (the 5th game in the series) gets referred to as 'Mass Effect 5' by BioWare folk (as well as their own code-name, rumoured to be 'Bowie') (it's unlikely to actually have a number or course, it'll have a title like Andromeda.). And given that the game will make reference to ME Andromeda (confirmed by the game director) then calling it '4' makes literally no sense. So no. 'Mass Effect 5' is more correct, at least for now.
I really REALLY hope BioWare’s next game is a return to form. They desperately need it.
Considering the gameplay we saw, although super short clips, it most def did not look return to form. Instead, looked like it was trying to be a copycat of other action games. Hopefully that was super early footage and the heart and soul of dragon age is still there🙏
And how many of their games has that been said?
Sorry to say they've been nothing but grifters for some time and they'll sadly not change
The best we can hope for is the shell of a company can imitate Bioware's older form good enough. There will not and cannot be a "return to form."
@@Captain.AmericaV1 I don't think it's fair to say that they are 'grifters'. I do think it's fair to say that they fundamentally misunderstand what made their earlier games great and that EA has dicked them over a lot. The confluence of those two things adequately explains why they haven't put out anything great in a while.
@@yupperdude1 I really don't understand this. Why are you so averse to faster paced action style combat? Inquisition has it, and it's still a great rpg with choices, buildmaking, progression etc, and it only got even better with trespasser. People seem to think you can't have fast paced combat and still be an rpg, but it's just not true in the slightest. Seems like a lot of people think anything that isn't origins will never be good
While technically Dragon Age 4 has been in development since 2015, it has gone through two separate re-sets. It started out as a single player game under Mike Laidlaw before EA pushed them to change it to a Live Service game, causing him to leave and start Ywllow Brick games. Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah guided it for a while as Project Morrison before Respawn changed the math with their Jedi game. Per reports, EA cleaned the slate in 2021 and said take what you can of the old development and give us a Single player game...again. So, while DA4 has a long dev history, there are lot of fits and starts.
EA has their own responsibility for BioWare's release issues. They allowed Andromeda to be played in 10hr early access demo on EA Play prior to the day 1 patch. That gave people a a whole week to meme this shit out of it and stall it's momentum. With Anthem, EA did the same thing...gave pre-patch early access on an unfinished game
Exactly this. It hasn't had 8 years development because it changed into 'Marvel Avengers does Dragon Age' for a time before EA realised that was probably a bad idea and reverted it to a single-player project.
Dreadwolf is not the first, nor will be the last, game to go through development hell in the same way. And I can't think of a single one of those games that did well.
@@SevCaswell We'll need to wait and see then. The writing team is excellent, so my expectations are high.
@Sevrin Tiger Dragon Age Origins began development in Nov 2002 as successor to Baldur's Gate but it was so unfocused that Mass Effect's development in 2004 superceded it in priority and DAO really didn't get the boost it needed until EA bought BioWare in 2007. This is without issues related to engine issues or live service. Afterwards, they were able to release DA Awakenings and DA2 (16 month dev time) pretty quickly as they just patch-worked the Eclipse Engine into the Lycium Engine. If EA stuck with Laidlaw's original single player vision in 2017, you'd already have Dreadwolf but they wanted a Assassin's Creed-esque continuous live service game so they re-set it and set the game on the development course we see now. Recognizing they F'd up is likely why EA approved a re-vamp of the game and wiped the slate clean in terms of previous cost the both Project Joplin and Morrison
@@mulwin444 Exactly this. They were on the right path, got seduced by GAAS (ooh shiny) and lost several years in the process.
I will always hate that we didn't get the Quarian DLC.
I mostly hate that we didn't get to explore meridian
Yep
If only Bioware had been less desperate to get Anthem out of the door and had put more effort and manpower in development of Andoromeda, they would be in a MUCH better spot right now. But no - They HAD to put all their best manpower and resources in that bloody Anthem pet project (that I predicted to fail, and lost all interest in, the very moment I heard it would be a Game-As-A-Service Multiplayer pile of garbage). If they had taken their time to get a decent Mass Effect title out of the door, that had bought them time to concentrate on that Anthem stuff, things had gone VERY different. And here we are - By those bad decisions we now have two bad games, and one of them (Andromeda) is not even decently finished because of those missing DLC's with the rest of the story...
@@jclosed2516 yes, them working on two games at same time was a mistake. Bioware isn't that big of a studio to handle that.
@Twistedinnocence86 how are you guys so confident yet so clueless? It was a separate studio that made andromeda. It wasn't the main bioware
The bioware we knew and loved is dead and gone. The sooner we all accept that the better
its hard to accept when you know they've made so much amazing games before, its really unfortunate what's happened....
their last good game was 11 years ago
So much this! Writers and talent are long gone that made past fan favorites. Much the same for Obsidian in fact. Companies are collections of talent. Baldures Gate 3 is more like DAO tbh.
@@tucomeslculo inquisition is really good imo
@@iova3922 the only “bad” game they have really made is anthem. Andromeda is perfectly decent. I think most people are just riding the doomer train.
Bioware went from one of my fav game companies to a company i completely forgot existed........i dont know what going on with them but i hope they can find some True Bioware Magic and return to delivering amazing rpg games
They were the most surefire company back in the early 2000s. Their Star Wars and Mass Effect early games were insane.
Then they just up and fell off a cliff.
"Bioware Magic" is just a cute way to refer to bad management. Bioware's previous games were good in spite of "Bioware Magic", not because of it.
When you have two back to back massive flops , that tends to happen. Dragon Age 3 didn't do all that well either and mass effect 3 had a disappointing ending that hurt their reputation as well.
@@twistedinnocence8617 ...Inquisition was Bioware's most successful game ever. You're allowed to dislike it, but saying that it "didn't do all that well" is just plain wrong.
@@benl2140 I meant that it failed to reach expectations. It was successful but I believed they called it disappointing as afar as sales and reviews. Mass effect 3 actually sold more. They expected more from it. I love the game. Definitely better than dragon Age 2.
Matty you’re spot on with this. What comes out next could really define BioWare’s legacy in more ways than one. I was one of those that jumped in feet first for both Andromeda and Anthem not liking the bitter taste left after both games were shelved before the potential could have been realized. Flashback to Dragon Age 2. I’m on the fence with BioWare right now not wanting to be the Charlie Brown to their Lucy having that proverbial football snatched away yet again. 😑
The saboteur was one of a kind! Alot of people struggled to get that game when it released.
that game is an underrated gem!
One of my favorite games.
I have no idea whats wrong with Bioware - DAI was a huge success and a good mix of the styles of DA1/2 in a more open setting... It was awesome, so why not just work with that framework and just tweak and polish and make a sequel from that... The fact they seemed to throw it all out and start from stratch is insane to me...
My hopes are high I can't help it. I'd love this game to be a huge success. Fingers crossed.
Do you think it will be good?
The team that made the classics is gone, but we’ll wait and see
The problem with 6+ year dev cycles is by the time you're near completion, the tech and assets made from the first 2 years are already obsolete. Cyberpunk2077 exemplified this issue.
Cyberpunk problem is shit gameplay and fuck all to do outside of killing people not bad visuals
Nah. CP was rushed by greedy investors and whiny gamers. Game could’ve used another 6 month delay but people cried too hard. Look at the game now: a banger.
I unfortunately think that its going to fail. Not necessarily because of the leaks. Just because of the pattern that’s repeating itself(andromeda, anthem having similar stories)
Now Mark Darrah said on his channel that when he left it was shaping up nicely, but I doubt that he would say if it wasn’t. On the otherhand origins also had an incredibly rocky development so i guess there is a slight hope.
Mark can't and won't tell us if he had no faith in the project, that would hurt future employment chances as well.
I am not that optimistic about it either but all DA games had rocky developments and all of them turned out well enough. I heard that when they were working on Origins and 2, they were more rushed than they are now. When Inquisition was being developed, they had to work on the Frostbite engine, which is essentially for fps games. They managed to create a medieval rpg out of it anyway. BioWare had also never failed dramatically in Dragon Age, not yet anyway. People might argue that 2 was a little underwhelming but we must consider that it was supposed to be a spin-off game originally named Exodus, not a direct sequel.
Origins was also a much smaller game made my a much smaller team. It was much easier to salvage a project 15 years ago vs today with how complex games are and the massive teams they require.
As for dreadwolf, it may be good, it may be bad. Ultimately tho it doesn’t matter. The BioWare of today is a completely different studio with completely different people. The people that made origins are long gone. We will never get to see what an actual DA4 by Mike Laidlaw would have been
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 we have to pray because without BioWare what RPG’s are we really going to enjoy?
Indeed it is worth noting that modern Bioware also broke features in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so they could not even port that properly, look up ScifiIsMyJam for more info.
FYI, "Jade Empire " is an amazing game that is extremely under rated. That has always deserved as well as needed a sequel 😎
Please don't ask for the IP to be tarnished, current Bioware aren't capable of tying their own shoelaces let alone make a sequel to Jade Empire that isn't atrocious.
@@Spr1ggan87 I agree completely to be fair I wasn't asking. Just say Jade Empire is a great game and deserves more acknowledgement as well as recognition. It's most definitely a Gem! I personally gave up on Bioware after their last 2 games. And I've given up on Halo after Infinite being abandoned....
@@nbleys5696 Yeah pretty much the same as me. I don't even know what you do with Bioware or their IP if you're EA now. I mean i guess Respawn could make really good Mass Effect entries. Personally i hope they sell the IP to MicroSoft, then Obsidian could work on DA titles.
I love BioWare and I'm a big fan of the Dragon Age series. What worries me is that I don't know if Dragon Age can pull the big numbers that EA would want them to.
Depends on what they want.
DA had never sold 10+ million copies, so if that's the target goal, then the game is already doomed.
If I'm not mistaken that was what they expected from Dead Space 3, even though that series also never sold that much before.
They have to have actual realistic goals. DA usually moves 3-4 million copies...that should be the goal. If it sells more, then great. But if they expected Elden Ring or God of War numbers, then Dragon Age is screwed.
@@Runforestrun That's usually the problem when big companies buy a smaller company. They have insane expactations. Just like how Amazon ruined comixiology.
Here's what I think about the new Dragon Age game: They have a big job ahead of them to create compelling characters, such as Hawke, Dorian, Cullen, and Varric, to name a few. I also enjoyed Andromeda, although it had its WTF moments, such as Scott Ryder's clumsy attempts at bedding everyone on his crew. Kinda creepy, I thought, and it caused me to think back with nostalgia at how hard you had to work to romance, Kaidan or Tali.
The problem is the EA management. Their desire to push live service into Dragon Age totally F’d up the development cycle. Basically a poison pill, finally realizing that a more classic rpg was the proper course only gave a wounded project freedom to try and reach the promised land; without providing an antidote to the poison.
Hopefully the creative talents can regroup somewhere under management who believe that a great rpg will make player happy and thus prove more than profitable.
I just really hope they keep nuanced decisions intact in Dragon Age. Similar to The Witcher, you often didn’t know what outcome would come from your decisions, even if they’re well intended. REALLY hope they don’t boil down their role-playing into “obvious good options” and “obvious bad options”
Those successful RPGs you mentioned all used the Unreal engine. One of Bioware's hugest problems arose when EA forced them to use the Frostbite Engine and the team had to practically re-invent the engine to get it to work with an RPG format.
Im glad i was a kid through 2006-2013 legendary gaming era games will never be the same.
Thank you for the video matty. Again I appreciate your content.
One thing that worried me, is all the veteran devs leaving. That really worried me.
Keep expectations low. It just needs to be FUN!! A compelling story would be great too. They don't have to change the DA formula too much. Just update everything from gameplay to graphics and remember to incorporate players decisions into the game. The element of hard choices and consequences is at the core of Dragon Age and Mass Effect. They nail that, we'll be GOOD!
We also have to remember that Bioware themselves, outside of EA's influence, struggle in managing themselves and their own people. Bioware "magic" was just a huge sugar coated backwards way of saying exhausting amounts of overtime leading to burnout and departures. EA provides outside pressure but Bioware have been slowly destroying themselves from lack of management and leadership for years now. Respawn have leadership and a clear direction of where they want to take their games. Bioware always seems to be playing catch-up. Whereas Respawn was able to wade in to the SP market and stand firm, Bioware is still trying to get in. IMO.
I hope this will a return to form for them. I love BioWare storytelling and I haven’t found any other company that makes games I love more. Other than anthem I haven’t disliked any BioWare games I’ve played. Hoping for the best. Honestly I’d love a dragon age origins and 2 remake for new hardware. My biggest fear of BioWare did fall apart is the lack of true single player rpg games. I haven’t found any other single player games that capture that niche. Like Bethesda is the closest thing in my opinion but I can’t stomach those games tbh
BioWare’s only recent success since Inquisition is Mass Effect Legendary Edition. After reading the recent Dragon Age comics and watching the tv show I think the story seems to be going a good direction so far. Hopefully Dread Wolf Rises can pull BioWare out of this mess. I’m still worried they might screw up on Solas as an antagonist though and so much people leaving isn’t a good sign.
Spot on take, don't see enough people talking about how there is a LEGITIMATE problem at Bioware.
If Bioware confirm that ME4 is a continuation of the trilogy with Shep as the PC, I will gladly pay the preorder and wait as long as it takes. They have everything they need, all the assets, are there, in Unreal already, which should port well to Unreal 5. They just need a STELLAR story. Because the stories are why we all love Bioware, right?
EA: We want online features in all our games!
Bioware: We've always wanted to make a multiplayer Dragon Age
EA after Fallen Order: We no longer require games to be multiplayer
Bioware: Dragon age will be reworked to be a single player game.
Andromeda was written by a bunch of highschool edgelords, it was godawful. Biowares major problem is the loss of their entire legacy writing team....they will never return to the quality they had. I grew up loving Kotor and every single thing they put out, but lets face it their writing has been shit since ME 2.
I loved Bioware back in the day. TTheir games have always been my favorites. From Balders Gate to Jade Empire to Dragon Age and then the Mass Effect trilogy. But lets be honest. This is not the same Bioware of old. The folks who created that Bioware magic as its called, are all long gone. They're Bioware in name only. I was very disappointed in the DA4 leaks. Perhaps Biowares time is up and it might better to start licensing their IP out to more capable studios.
BioWare is just a generic AAA developer now:
- overly farcical dialogue
- fast-paced, easy combat
- maximally superficial RPG features like upgrading gear and unlocking abilities
- a cluttered HUD with absolutely everything labeled
- simple puzzles that characters spoil with obvious hints
I’m 90% confident this will basically be Dreadwolf.
It’s a fair point.
In a world where RPG’s are norm BioWare a RPG developer needs to make itself stand out.
Indeed it is worth noting that modern Bioware also broke features in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so they could not even port that properly, look up ScifiIsMyJam for more info.
When the info about the new combat in Dreadwolf arrived, I lost all interest in it.
I agree, it will probably be a mid game that tries super hard to be mainstream
I hope Dragon Age 4 closes the story of the Dreadwolf in a satisfying way, but overall I have many, MANY gripes with the road the series took after Origins. Not only in gameplay but also the scope and overall feel
It’s a shame really, but a lot of the people that made Bioware what it was isn’t there anymore. DA4 will be the tell if they can actually make good games anymore.
I’d like to see BioWare produce traditional single player games. I just hope DreadWolf will not disappoint, but I don’t want to give my hopes up. I can see the struggle of the DA’s combat system after being changed multiple times. I do hope Dread Wolf finds its own path, in it’s traditional combat system that we all enjoyed and endured since Origins.
Extremely well thought out concerns and very very valid. Let’s all hope for the best with DADW
I think game studios need to start scaling down a bit.
I am hopeful for Bioware and Dreadwolf and even ME4. I just hope people give it an honest fighting chance and not just blow it off because of EA.
Bioware has had a bad track record lately. Some of that can be blamed on EA's intervention but not all of it. Bioware has, by all accounts, lost much of the old magic they once had. People want good Bioware games again and they will suffer EA if that's what it takes to get them, nobody is going to not 'give it a chance' just because EA's logo is on the thing but Bioware has an uphill battle to prove themselves capable right now. Everyone here would love for Dreadwolf and ME4 to be bangers but we are all very reasonably cynical about that possibility.
Indeed it is worth noting that modern Bioware also broke features in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so they could not even port that properly, look up ScifiIsMyJam for more info.
They do need a hit and I think they'll deliver.
Bioware has always treated Dragon Age as their "experimental" branch... I'm not surprised at all they did what they did with Dreadwolf. Ever since DA2 at the least this has been the case.
You can 100% see inquisition ideas in Andromeda, for example, after they (IMO) wrongly interpreted inquisition to have done well when in reality it was a decent game in one of the worst years of gaming known to humans 😅.
Even if dreadwolf fails, you'll see the clear influences over their next big title, that being the next mass effect.
ya I thought DAI was...okay? When people talk about Bioware coming up short last gen, I see mostly just Andromeda and Anthem brought up. But for me, It definitely started with Inquisition which just didn't really stick with me. It was better than the other two I would say(didn't play Anthem but I feel I got the idea from reviews), but it still didn't really have that classic Bioware magic imo. Story was kind of meh/average and structured in a really annoying way by making you do what should have been side content in order to actually progress. Side quests were mostly boring and repetitive. Companions were alright but definitely nowhere Bioware's best. Also in my personal opinion, the voiced acted protagonist didn't feel truly necessary.
@@Joshcoshbagosh Agreed. The things that turned me off to Andromeda definitely stemmed from things in Inquisition but it also didn't have some of the better features from Inquisition either. It does seem like DA is sort of a testing ground for new ideas, which unfortunately means Dreadwolf is going to be riddled with problems and if Bioware survives long enough (and learns the right lessons), ME4 might be 'ok'.
Inquisition fucking sucks lol
Indeed it is worth noting that modern Bioware also broke features in Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so they could not even port that properly, look up ScifiIsMyJam for more info.
@@BlueMarsalis i didn't think it was bad, but I definitely had a lot of issues with it. It strayed too far from Bioware's classic formula imo. I think they should also stick with smaller game worlds and more linear level design. Because they have shown a few times now that they really don't know how to do open world(or at least semi open world) properly
Imagine if Bioware actually developed one idea for 8 years. There last 3 games were basically remade halfway or even late into development. They've been making Dreadwolf for 8 years, but I would guess it's more like 4 or 5.
The once mighty BioWare from 1997-2012(ish) is long gone. All of those talented people who built the company have long since left. Probably best to just accept that fact and lower your expectations from BioWare, like really lower.
Proof or didn't happen
@@MerrillDragonAge What are you talking about? Greg Zeschuk, Ray Muzyka, Trent Oster, Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn, James Ohlen, Mike Laidlaw, Mark Darrah, David Gaider, and many others that made the company great during BioWare’s glory days are gone.
@@stevequincy388 half of those were not involved in Dragon Age
@@MerrillDragonAge And some of those names were major players in Bioware's Dragon Age, James Ohlen, David Gaider, Mike Laidlaw, and Mark Darrah are gone. These were the creative minds behind Dragon Age. Do you honestly think current Bioware has the same talent level to replace these legendary developers? After Andromeda and Anthem? Not sure what your point is.
@@stevequincy388 Darrah himself says he's confident in the current team.
Love the content as always! Hoping as well that we get some type of update perhaps this week
I appreciate your video and topic of discussion here Matty . To me I think we over complicate what is so very simple and it is this : entertainment at its core is escapism!
That’s it . Entertainment is meant to give you a breath of fresh air, to allow you to experience something for a limited time/window that is separate from your current every day 24 seven experiences/routines.
It is what makes entertainment such a important aspect and human life, regardless of what form it takes. Because it takes you out of the monotony and routine of your overwhelming daily experiences to give you a separate and new/different experience for a small time.
Our culture through social media has adopted this main stream approach that over many recent years now has become more and more injected into everything and then normalized. Because of social medias integration into literally everything we are around disguised as conveniences, entertainment is naturally another place that main stream pushes it into as if a normal expectation. All it is is the disingenuous, insecure desire for attention for different selfish reasons….. but this is why you see so much current culture of main stream bullshit infesting everything in entertainment whether it’s sports or movies or shows or games.
It’s either individuals wanting selfish attention, so prioritizing themselves or their agenda into the entertainment or it is a companies, disingenuous pandering desire to appease those main stream narratives for delusional, non-consumer pats on the back.
And all of this is bad as it is not entertaining. When we think of entertainment, we don’t think of our jobs, or our every day, social media, experience, or whatever main stream narrative you can think of. Current culture relevancy is not entertaining, escapism is entertaining! But more and more we see priority, being placed on current culture, relativism and escapism, becoming less and less and less, if not there at all….. and escapism is the only form that actual entertainment takes. Which means you have less and less and less entertainment, if any at all.
And all of this occurs, because the majority of consumers in our cultural climate have become so spoiled by their instant gratification, addictions, and so complacent that they are willing to settle every step of the way. It doesn’t even matter if it is a lazy placebo, they will internally project that instant gratification onto the placebo to make it satiate their addiction in some form or another , even if it only last a couple weeks. This kind of mentality enables these companies and individuals to continue pandering to current culture, main stream, narratives or selfish self, seeking attention, and get away with it because they’re maintaining access to your eyeballs and wallets. And as long as that is maintained, because ultimately, that is the only goal that the company cares about, they will continue to try and have their cake and eat it too. and it goes from very subtle prioritization is added into the entertainment, which then turns into where we are now with blatant obvious prioritization’s injected into it.
Straight up removing entertainment in jarring ways, because the escapism is gone and replaced with the current cultural relevancy’s .
The only way to course correct this and return to what we had a decade ago in a decade before then which was just escapism whether it was the super Nintendo, N64, genesis, Dreamcast, PlayStation, original Xbox, ….. we have to stop giving these blatant exploitation’s and hijacking of so-called entertainment any of our eyeballs or wallets. Consumers are actually the ones that hold these entities accountable. Because they decide whether they get the profit they’re looking for or not.
Granted it might hurt at the beginning because those instant gratification addictions and complacencies are so great at this point… But in refusing access to consumer, eyeballs and wallets, the companies will almost instantaneously go in the opposite direction. They are a custom to right now with their decision making. Because ultimately all they care about is profit and if you refuse that for what they are doing, then they will stop doing it.
They will prioritize whatever you want them to prioritize, in order to gain access to your eyeballs and wallets. And if that priority is completely and solely escapism, for the sake of entertainment, then that is the only damn thing they will give you. They will return to those entertainment fundamentals. They used to know in the early days because of wanting access to your eyeballs and wallets.
There will always be the desire to exploit, or move the bar, so to speak, which is how current cultural relevancy’s get implemented into entertainment, and when those signs occur, it is up to the consumer to have the spine enough to check the company by reminding them what they want from them, and what they will lose if they do not provide it. It’s the same principle that works in every day life with everything. The consumer set the bar.
So stop settling for this bullshit of individuals and companies hijacking entertainment to use it like an extension of their social media pages and use your eyeballs and wallets to demand that entertainment be about escapism and only that.
And if you do that we will return entertainment to being what it is meant to be with these multi billion dollar companies using their incomprehensible amounts of resources and finances, geared solely and completely to entertainment/escapism. Which is how you realize the full potential that these projects have if that priority is there from consumers.
For multi billion dollar companies, this is easily done if you have the spine to demand . And for the sake of these projects, and the potential they have… I hope you eventually do because what you settle for, is so astronomically far less than what they could be.
After SWTOR and Anthem...........man they need something good but the old Bioware is gone all those people have sense left or retired
Bioware is just a name now. Most of the KOTOR and Mass Effect team have left.
Where r they
@@timmyturner6862 Casey Hudson left to go to Microsoft. Don't know what he's doing now. Most of the main team left years ago after ME3.
@@moochoman9948 that sucks
i want more mass effect so yeah i hope they are sucessful
Bioware is self aware...but i think Jackdaw and Matty want them to Deliver a AAA game 🤞
EA to Bioware if DAD failed: "We don't want to play with you anymore" *while holding EA Original and Star Wars single player games*
Hey Matty you should send in a video presentation of your most overrated games so you can still have a presence at the show
Only one thing can save Bioware now.... Jade Empire 2: Electric Kungfoo
Bioware has been dead for a decade now. Their last good RPG(in my opinion) was Mass Effect 3, though they peaked with Mass Effect 2. Dragon Age: Inquisition was such an average game and nothing else they've made since has come close to even that.
I think one of the prime things that really made Bioware great was they published thier own games. Every game released "when it was done", and they didn't have a parent company pushing them to do things... like release a game in 18 months (Dragon Age 2) or to make a game centered around "live service" (Anthem).
They’ll get better, times are hard right now. BioWare is one of my favorite gaming companies.
If people still play the trash Bethesda Softworks churns out, I think BioWare will do just fine. It’s literally impossible the next Dragon Age game can debut any more broken or half finished than starfield, so yeah. It’ll do fine.
Guys DAO took over 10 years to make. I will hold my judgement for the actual game but I have my fingers crossed
I just recently found this channel. I like your content. Good work Matty.. 👍
As someone who has done contract story and narrative experience testing for game companies, BioWare included, one thing you have to look at is the cost center aspect. EA is a publisher, BioWare is a studio. (Actually, multiple studios.) All decisions by EA relative to their studios has to do with promises made by the product teams (at the studios) in terms of what they can deliver and in what timeframes. Consider how badly this worked out with SWTOR, as one example. And yet, even with that, the game is still a pretty good cash cow for them. BioWare's cost center has reduced over time. And because of that reduction that means it takes longer to get these games out. (You have less resources in your cost center to spread around.) So it becomes an interesting dynamic between studio and publisher and can lead to interesting death spirals of internal funding and resources that sabotage game development.
I do really get what you mean by there by mismanaging projects despite a game being good and generally well received. Bioshock Infinite was really fun I thought! But it felt so cut from that E3 demo we saw in like 2011-2012, looked absolutely insane, Elizabeth looked different, you could actually have a boss fight with the giant bird, etc, they make really impressive demos but the game comes out and it's really good but not as good as that trailer
I am very worried. As it stands, this will be the first dragon age that I will not buy on release, but wait for all the reviews and what people say about it.
If the next Dragon Age is a failure EA will probably axe them. Given EA's penchant for killing studios I'm surprised they've hung on this long.
Ngl when they showed that last cinematic at the end of last year it was really annoying cause it basically told us nothing. Everyone knows it's about Solas, and the last thing we needed was more narrated artwork instead of something more substantial. Obviously I want them to take their time but the long periods of nothing/silence only to get info that we already know is super annoying. The best we've got were the codex entries. I really wish that they'd at least share some more details about the game that we don't know even if they can't show us yet.
I dearly love this series and hope they don't mess this up. Dragon Age fans have been starved for too long...
I used to think that DA4 was BioWare's last chance as a company. But now that a new Mass Effect is in development, I think THAT is BioWare's last chance. However, DA4 will still be Dragon Age's last chance as a game series, and it is going to need to be a grand slam of a game.
If dreadwolf flops because of story ,gameplay, buggy launch then ME will probably be the same. That’s why ME’s success also rides on dreadwolf’s success. And vise versa if dreadwolf slaps then ME is most likely gonna be a banger too
I really feel for the people of BioWare because I bet there’s loads going on and being said but they have to maintain client confidentiality and not say anything
i've been worried about Bioware since Andromeda, i know others liked it, much like CP2077, but much like that game, it plays different for different people, and then you look at Anthem, and all these changes we've heard about Dreadwolf, with still no clear sign of a release, you gotta wonder if they're worth it, even as a fan
Agree that the extremely long development cycles have been more damaging than the misses (Andromeda, Anthem). Even great artists put out a clunker now and then, especially if they are deliberately aiming for something different than what they have succeeded with in the past, and BioWare has WAY more home runs than bunts.
The trick is to follow up your successes, sure, but to follow up your failures even faster. The last thing you want is the last taste in the mouth, the bad taste, to linger.
I miss Consumerist, who made all those worst company of the year brackets. RIP Consumerist
I didn't get andromida till later and I loved the game.Anthem had really fun gameplay but the story was too limited I wish that had gotten proper love.
I've loved Bioware from the beginning. The founders are gone, the sad truth is it isn't Bioware anymore.
Man if BioWare made another game as good as Dragon Age Origins that would be awesome, they could finally go back to making 7/10 games again.
Game development keeps getting longer and the games keep getting worse… maybe gaming being a multi billion dollar industry isn’t a good thing..
That's why embracing indie games is the only way forward
Yeah, the obsession with making games "bigger" is clearly starting to take its toll.
Yep. So many IP’s I look at and think: “Look how they massacred my boy…”
It is a good and bad thing. On one hand we potentially get games like Red Dead 2, and on the other, we get soulless games that need to meet investor needs.
🙄 If companies would stop changing course halfway through or 3/4 of the way through, you wouldn't have that issue with development lengths and release quality. When you also have them trying to literally squeeze every dime out of the consumers wallets with whatever shifty business practices, and either story changes and lack of true leaders behind the scenes, all these things can lead to a game being released at crappy quality. Or it seems like they just did the bare minimum to get the game out by the deadline. Which also can cramp a studio on a project. Indies can and have failed from similar experiences. If you go into development without a clear plan AND a way to change course without compromising the game quality and release date (by much), you're going to run into problems. Bending to the big wigs in terms of micro-transactions or whatever else or major storyline rewrites last minute or even early on, can also screw a game. Directors, designers, etc. have all left studios or games for such reasons and others that im not going to get into, either during development or afterward. Sometimes, these games don't have enough time in the oven for the amount of strife that these companies put the development studios through.
It shouldn't be about making a game to meet the companies needs or wants but making a game to meet the development studios' needs or wants.
Have a clear plan, make the games actual games, leave politics OUT of it, don't micro-manage your studio, be involved but hover over your studio(play test but don't actually stand over someone's shoulder as they work), F**K micro-transactions, promote the game well but don't spoil the story, get your fan-base involved and hear them out (surveys for what they like, miss seeing in games, want to see more of in games, or less of in games), keep your studio happy and have a safe healthy work environment for everyone.
8:27
You were so hard on this game when it first came out. I can't believe you are now saying you enjoyed it. When did that change??!
I can see bioware either being merged with an existing studio or dismantled entirely if this game does not meet EAs expectations, even if it's a critical success or enjoyed by fans.
Opinion here, but I truly believe that artistic creative outlet obviously has been strangled by corporate companies so interesting in new ideas, never get to flourish. Everyone thinks in terms of finances nowadays, so no one will even be willing to listen to something new or even let that idea out. That’s why the era of remakes and remasters is so massive sadly. Every new game now just looks like a hatched version of something before. Indie studios are the last line of creativity, but unfortunately, they never will have the budget team or talent to create some thing that can actually crack massive studios or they will be bought out and that would be the last we see if that Creativity.
Matty your forgetting Bioware has STOWR which is still generating money and is one of the longer running MMOs. You also forgot to mention Titanfall for Respawn and the linking it has to Apex. Respawn has also had some issues along the way like MoH and they are basically going to be taking over Battlefield and possibly absorbing DICE so that studio is pretty much tapped.
This is the consequence of over-production in game development, where they try to shoot mini movies for the cutscenes, hiring famous faces and everything has to go through 3 layers of a committee like it's a city council debating what their new town flag should be, all for a single-player game.
I don't think there is any Bioware left. Closing Bioware wouldn't change how I feel about EA.
The 7+ year development cycle is becoming more and more normal. RDR2 took 7 years and 3000 employees to create.
True, but I bet RDR2 staff used their time better. I often see these problems being lack of leadership or lack of cracking the whip on employees to nail down what the game is going to be in pre-production and beginning of production.
Which is not sustainable.
Difference is rdr was made by competent devs unlike cdpr or new bioware or at least what we know of new bioware
Company names are not the people who make the company, not once said companies become a gear in a corporate environment where every gear needs to deliver and produce not revenue, but profit/margins.
Bioware is a name, there's loads of amazing people working at current Bioware (like in all companies), but the ones who made the name what it is today are gone.
The issue with the gameplay changes through the years is that Origins fans want a classic tactical RPG and newer fans want an more Action styled RPG. Sadly the money is in the Action RPG genre.
great video, my biggest concern is with the writing, along with the trend chasing identity crisis. I will play Baldurs gate 3 for my dark fantasy setting game with deep lore, and will be waiting till way after launch for dread wolf. I just don't trust bioware anymore, and haven't for a long time.
baldurs gate is anything but not a dark fantasy, in the forgotten realm setting there can be some dark themes however is still an amalgamations of tropes and really high fantasy stuff , like the astral sea, thousand of races and the dozens of alternate dimensions.
@@nicolocorbellani9807 tru enough,maybe dark was the wrong word choice. I just found the writing in inquisition to be soulless, where as the divinity series or bg3 even in it's current state has depth, at least for me. Inquisition, andromeda, anthem all missed the mark (again just for me).
@@cdubyaxvi3614 i really liked the writing of inquisition, especially the whole theme of the search for a divine cause and the exploration of what is faith? Are the gods/god real?can be faith good or bad for society? How fanaticism develops?etc.
Also the new lore about the elven empire and the dwarven empire is great, it adds a lot of dephts to the setting.
@@nicolocorbellani9807 well im just finishing a play thru of origins, and 2, I will give Inquisition one more honest try, it has been a long time.
@@cdubyaxvi3614 if you are interested there are youtubers who cover the more recent lore in depth
What a coincidence for the timing of this video because I just finished dragon age inquisition and I want to continue the story
It's a shame because Bioware has the IP's to make great games they just can't seem to nail development and management properly. For some reason there is always development troubles with their games.
There's the old philosophical parable about a ship.
If you have a ship named bioware and a plank on the deck goes bad, you will replace it. Say a board underneath goes bad and you replace it. The mast falls down and you replace it. If all of the original pieces of the ship are replaced, is it the original ship? Can you truly call it bioware?
No. Not in this case. Everything that made that company great is gone. Clearly the same people who made baldur's gate and Mass effect, not to mention dragon age origins, are long gone. Sad to say, but that company no longer exists.
It really is tragic what they did to the Mass Effect trilogy. They’re sitting on millions. They should let Respawn make Mass Effect from now on or at least have respawn be in charge of BioWare.
I've already made peace in my mind that BioWare doesn't exist anymore. Not the one I loved in 2007-2012. It is but a husk, controlled by a robotic overlord which has drained it of all its talent and will, and left behind a grotesque, moving corpse.
Hope they'll be strong romance options
And it better not be woke
@@DeltaAssaultGaming it's BioWare, you know it will be...
Lets see them make more excuses like the ones they did for Dwarf romance [pretty much saying that anyone that wanted Dwarven romances were just creepy fetishists]
@@AzureRoxe Yeah and people who want to romance Elves and Qunari aren't lol
There will never be another RPG trilogy as good as mass effect. BioWare especially will never stop themselves in that regard.
I'm trying to get through mass effect for the first time, and really really trying to get used to the Shepard voice acting.
Even though Mass Effect Legendary Edition was a success, I think they dropped the ball, not once, but twice with the lack of multiplayer. When MELE first dropped and without it, there was decent amount of feedback to bring that back. What Bioware should have done (last year on november the 7th aka N7 day, about a year later) was to surprise the community by announcing it's return. Which would not only make old fans return to the series yet again, but most of all since MELE became a free game of the month via PSN shortly after. Which brought in a lot of new fans to the franchise that has yet to experience MP and how to play like an asari, volus or a collector etc. ME3 MP was a massive hit back in the day and I think it would be somewhat a hit again under these circumstances and with a good trailer behind it. The loot boxes which was actually not too pricey, (if they kept the prices somewhat similar) would also be a nice profit to Bioware and be well worth the update. However, it was a good idea to drop the war asset thing, but MP should've made a return as a stand alone thing.
I said long ago that Bioware is just an eggshell of a company, all the real talent left ages ago. It's just a name now.
Salutations Mr Matty!! 🖖
I dont have any attachments to Bioware. If Dragon age flops, i still dont think EA should shut the entire studio down. They should downsize it and make it a support studio, while also letting them just make smaller games (AA) with reasonable budgets and time lines.
If Bioware is still a competent studio they should be able to make good games, despite the size or budget.
For example Obsidian makes all kinds of games and all of them are well received, because they are just good at what they do.
Honestly, the biggest problem with Anthem was the lack of endgame content. Once you beat the game within 1-3 days, there wasn’t anything to do. To copy destiny’s terminology: there were no strikes, raids, vaults, etc. that were compelling enough to keep players around. The progression system was also very lackluster due to this. You’d barely be able to get unique, higher power weapons from the one “strike” that they had on launch, or by replaying the main story with friends on a harder difficulty. A shame because the gameplay was so incredibly fun.
Honestly, from EVERYONE I know, there's either no excitement for Dragon Age, a vague knowledge of the franchise or it's just not something people care about...AT ALL. And these are people that like RPGs. I feel a flop is on the horizon, at least commercial. Dragon Age isn't an IP that connects to the masses and for a game that's been in development for sooo long, that's a HUGE problem.
Third-person games are not immersive ---- I don't care what you say, you will never change my mind.
If they are making a direction change as a developement studio, I'd say it's fine, but it needs to be great. They clearly aren't the Bioware they used to be, so they really NEED to find that new identity with this Dragon Age. If they fail, I actually agree and think this will be their end.
Isn't this the same thing that Bethesda going through but they'll just become a name and support for other companies
Biowares fate was already sealed years ago, when they have lost their course after Mass Effect 3 with their experiments Project Dylan called later Anthem, then the disaster I would say with Andromeda which turned many players off and the beginning of the big wave of goodbyes by the veterans. The bioware of old is already gone and the New Bioware has to proove their worth....
BioWare was kings when Bethesda was only funny enthusiasts 🥴 Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast expansion 1998 on 5 CDs when StarCraft was 180mb hohoho we hope that they'll survive and Diablo has only save and quit while in BG I had 178 saves to experiment with branches and choices