I wouldn't be too unhappy if someone else carried the torch of mass effect the property elsewhere. I'm assuming that EA still holds all rights for those games?
I've said the exact same thing before! Would love a Mass Effect XCOM clone!
I'd also take a BG3-like turn-based RPG campaign set in the Mass Effect universe.
Either way, as much as I'll always miss Old Bioware, they clearly weren't ever going to reach those heights again. And them closing down may actually put us a step closer to the IP being sold to someone else. If it's an asset that the new Kushner-Saudi EA simply doesn't care about, then why not sell it?
I wish Zero Company had more depth and was longer, less linear.
Everything else about it was great. It's ending seemed to be a bit early, and with so much more that could have been done with it by just making it longer, a bit more... everything (weapons, skill tree, grenade types, etc. etc.)
Just seemed like an amazing game that was rushed out the door to me. I still loved it, though.
I think the closest thing we'll get is the game Exodus.
It's being made by some former og Bioware devs, including the writer. So hopefully the game can hit that same mark.
That'd be nice. I hate that this would likely be the end of the Mass Effect universe but if there's a spiritual successor, I'd be happy. All good things must come to an end and all that.
From what I've seen, the lore could be Mass Effect levels of ambitious: tens of thousands of years of history, ruins upon ruins, empires upon empires, tons of opportunities for discovering ancient intentions. Whether they pull it off is an open question, of course!
Yup, the foundation is pretty good. I read the books by Peter Hamilton, and after a rough start (contract work after all), it’s pretty obvious that they created a setting where an infinite number of stories could be told.
Many redflags for me on this one. And I have been following it since the early days with the email lore drops. I hope I am getting surprised in a positive way though.
I'm still very interested but been put off a bit myself because of a few things. Like the character designs, not talking about bullshit "not attractive" shit but the main character looks really funky like he's a catwalk model full of botox and they backpaddled on going with a classic character creator which usually makes me more interested due to replay factors. Heck, they've yet to even show female Yun unless I've missed it so I don't even believe there will be any. We'll see. Not convinced it's the "next Mass Effect" myself. And to me, Mass Effect to me is about the universe it is set in and the continuation of that so any other game, great or bad stands on their own outside of my love for the Mass Effect franchise.
Assuming EA doesn't use the IP as a write off loss for tax purposes. If they do it's unlikely anyone can pick up the IP. Tim Cain, one. It the fallout creators, talked about that in one of his videos
Veilguard that was also "in development" since the end of Inquisition in... 2014. Restarted several times, put on hold for Anthem and Andromeda, etc etc and then launched to a fairly mid response.
They have been absolute garbage at producing quality for over a decade.
Veilguard was way bellow mid, it was slop. Completely homgenized mechanics to be another shit 3d action game and took out all the love that origins and inquisition had. Then it sealed it with a terrible plot.
It makes sense if you imagine them all as being developed for a light hearted live service game where stakes would be an impediment to keeping a meandering story lumbering on for 5 years
And terrible companions, or at least, companion interactions. I swear if I had to babysit that group for another 2-3 scenes I would not have finished the game
It’s a trend I’ve been seeing with western RPGs and it happened with BG3 too. The characters get their edge removed after community feedback and we’re left with extremely dull cartoon characters better fit for fan fiction.
So wild to me to see how the narrative of games change over time. Inquisition has a couple compelling characters but to me it's a hella generic MMO-like mapiconslop-type game that was en vogue at the time.
Which is a fucking travesty considering that before this new generation they were responsible for some of the pillars of rpg games. Kotor, DA:O, and Mass Effect are all in mine and a lot of other peoples top 5 rpgs of all time, and BG/NWN are every bit as important, just to a different audience.
They did it to themselves. Based on the Anthem retrospective article years ago by Jason Schrier, they basically diddle around till the deadlines come up, then crunch 80 hours a week or more to get a game out, and call it "BioWare magic" and pat themselves on the back as everyone quits due to burnout. The new hires aren't the same level of talent, so it gets worse.
It's pretty clear there were serious issues behind the scenes. Andromeda was also in development for years and basically got rebuilt from the ground up in something like less than 2 years.
And Veilguard was shit. THAT was the level of quality the studio produces now a days. The old Bioware died a long time ago when all the old employees with talent left.
They actually had veterans left like Trick Weekes who wrote some of the best characters in Mass Effect 2 in a lead position for Veilguard. Veterans are not everything. On the other hand the Mass Effect writing team had the lead writer from the great Guardians of the Galaxy game and supposedly all the decently written parts in Veilguard is where the Mass Effect team helped out. I think Mass effect couldve been good.
They had two different teams. The Mass Effect/Anthem team and the Dragon Age Team. Andromeda was developed by a different Bioware studio then closed afterwards.
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u/PoliteDebaterPhenom II X4 975 BE, GTX 560ti, Gskill 8GB RAM, Sabertooth 990X 4h ago
Mass effect 4 went into full production last year IIRC
That was announced about 8 years ago, right? I think it is something like GRRM's books, we all know another one ain't coming out, and if it somehow does, it is going to be both far too late and a massive disappointment.
But a new series inspired by its ideas will eventually happen, it always does.
That's already happening.
Exodus is a spiritual successor from a new studio started by a bunch of BioWare guys including the lead designer of Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, and DA:O as well as the narrative director and lead writer for ME1 & 2 as well as KOTOR.
In addition, you have Owlcat nearing release for The Expanse: Osiris Reborn which is obviously based in The Expanse universe but also clearly VERY heavily inspired by ME (and by "inspired by" I mean if you showed the average person gameplay footage without context, they'd probably think it WAS Mass Effect.)
I'm gonna be real with you chief, one look at bethesda’s track record of the last decade and its obvious TES VI will not even remotely be a counterpoint
Metroid Dread is weird because it was not in development for 15 years.
It was shelved early on because they couldn't make what they wanted. And then technology advanced and they made the game they wanted to make originally.
We were also never supposed to know about Dread. How we did was a complete accident
It’s already happening. The original talent behind the mass effect series was no longer at BioWare anyway. They’re at a new studio, Archetype, making Exodus which is a spiritual successor to Mass Effect.
The problem is that the species and world building was phenomenal in ME and we won't get to see them ever again. EA is notorious for never allowing anyone to use their IPs
Only if the Saudis make EA sell it. Otherwise, they're not known for giving their dormant IPs new life. EA sits on their corpses like a dragon in a lair of bones
The fact that they're not even too embarrassed to mention Anthem tells you a lot as well. This isn't EA doing EA things, it's a studio that has been lost to mismanagement for over a decade.
Yep, they were. Big budget, lots of leeway. Management sold the idea really hard but mismanaged and didn't deliver.
It seems like the only condition EA really put on it was for it to be online-only live service.
It's crazy how they fucked that game up. It was so cool concept wise and beautiful. And they had Warframe and Destiny to go by. They just had to mix those two with a cool world, story, and exosuits.
EA meddled in the beginning. That's how we got an NPC shilling DLC in your camp in DA:O and DA2 being forced out in less than two years.
But after that, EA backed off. ME3's ending was ruined by Casey Hudson, not EA. Anthem was entirely Bioware's idea. Andromeda was Bioware again. Veilguard was restarted development like three times and EA foolishly let them take all the time in the world.
You can blame a lot on EA, but not this. Bioware was left to flail about on their own like a Microsoft run studio, burning millions doing nothing for years and producing mediocrity when they finally finished something.
Yeah.. love their games and i’d hate to see another great studio close down but they have not made a good game since 2014.. im surprised it took this long for them to get shut down.
Damn let me fire up my pc and play Dragon Age as a tribute.
Amazon is working on a Mass Effect show. If that show is a hit it would bring new interest to the franchise and I would expect another Mass Effect game. If that show is a dud then the IP could die or be put on hold for some time.
I feel like I've been hearing about that show for as long as I've been hearing about the next ME game and details are equally sketchy. And now it's not clear if they would even have access to anybody to advise on anything about the ME universe. I'd be surprised if that show gets made and doubly surprised if it's any good.
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u/PoliteDebaterPhenom II X4 975 BE, GTX 560ti, Gskill 8GB RAM, Sabertooth 990X 4h ago
You'd ve surprised but leveraged buyout means big interest payments that they have to make so anything that doesn't make them money is useless.
With how much EA owes after the leveraged buyout, they'll sell or the Saudis will force them. Being 20 billion dollars in debt is no joke and there was recent rumors of them defaulting.
We need to stop with the rehashed IP slop. Studios need to make new and fresh IPs. Nostalgia is not what makes anything good.
Before DA or ME were popular IPs, BioWare took a chance on both of those yo make games that were appealing.
Stop encouraging nostalgia bait and start encouraging risk taking. Something new and awesome is bound to be created if we stopped buying the rehashed slop from old IPs.
Anthem ran for like 7 years. You had to buy it at first but they quickly made it F2P, resulting in all those worthless physical discs at the stores for like $2 each
When I read your comment I was like "ME5? But there's never been a ME4!" Took me a while to remember "oh wait, Andromeda was a thing". I genuinely forgot about its existence, it left zero impression.
There was hope that the new Mass Effect would turn things around, but if it's still in early development now then there was little chance it'd save Bioware.
Plus, let's be honest. It might have become another Andromeda issue. Good graphics and gameplay but the story gets ruined by shoddy writing and new forgettable characters. It would not have been the same team that gave us the original trilogy
The ME team was pulled off for a time to work on Dragon Age Veilguard. I've heard it said that the ME team parts (notably the ending) were the best parts of the game.
It's a crazy world where a massively loved franchise like Mass Effect can't get a new edition within 9 years of the previous release. Mass Effect: Andromeda didn't do great but it still turned a profit by all accounts.
Bioware was dead the moment Bioware-Pandemic sold out. EA was never going to do anything but choke the life out of those companies. Considering that Pandemic was axed a year after the buyout, it's amazing Bioware lasted this long.
As a Mass Effect fanboy and it being my favourite video game series ever…this makes me happy that BioWare is dead. I’d rather we live with we have than suffer through whatever skinwalker the next game would be.
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u/brb_im_lagging 8h ago
The corpse of Bioware is shutting down*