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.
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u/Anderst0ne 4h ago
From what I read if anything Bioware was give a surprising amount of leeway by EA.