But Mass Effect 3 was their last truly great game. Inquisition was very contentious but it did have SOME fans, but their next games were too busy chasing trends instead of sticking to their bread and butter. Each subsequent game doubled and tripled down on the things people didn't care about, while not trying to go back to their roots.
Hopefully the devs can transition into more indy companies, so that they can make the games they want for the niche communities they want to appeal to and not be tied to huge budgets, expecting even larger returns,
Inquisition, while contentious amongst modern day fans, is Bioware's best selling game of all time. So technically that was their last great game, at least financially.
People view inquisition as a big turning point and departure from what made DAO great. Inquisition had brand recognition and was designed to be more approachable for a general audience, but fans were pretty critical of the game itself following release.
Similarly, RE5/6 had similar complaints from fans about them taking the series in the wrong direction but sold very well at the time. RE6 was so poorly reviewed that people thought it would kill the franchise. I liked the game but it’s an example of another franchise that hit a wall like BioWare. The difference is that Resident Evil identified what made the original games work so well and integrated it into the new games. BioWare did not.
That doesn't exactly mean anything. AC Valhalla is the highest selling game in the series and if anyone calls it great i have a hidden blade calling for them.
Yes but the point is that it was a financial success, so it couldn't have been the start point for Bioware's downfall. As I said, financially it was great. I'd argue Bioware's downfall had nothing to do with their games (though they certainly didn't help). The problem was internally. With the changing culture of their company.
Also to your point about AC, is Assasins Creed or the company behind it dead, or are they alive and thriving and still pumping out games with no sign of significant financial decline?
I just wanted to point out financial success doesn't mean a good or a bad thing for a studio. Wrong lessons could be learned from it.
In Bioware's case, they got way too pompous after all the success of Inquisition. They crunched the shit out of their employees and it worked in the end. Made them feel like the chaos in developement was not a bad thing while it killed their studio.
Yeah, this whole thread is full of missing the phenomenon that people have to buy something to find out it's bad. The last Paradox game I bought was Stellaris, which is what it took for me to accept they'd basically switched to the pay model of MMOs. A lot of companies go out with a financial bang, releasing an anticipated project that turns out to be crap.
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u/SoupyStain 8h ago
I'd never celebrate people losing their jobs.
But Mass Effect 3 was their last truly great game. Inquisition was very contentious but it did have SOME fans, but their next games were too busy chasing trends instead of sticking to their bread and butter. Each subsequent game doubled and tripled down on the things people didn't care about, while not trying to go back to their roots.
Hopefully the devs can transition into more indy companies, so that they can make the games they want for the niche communities they want to appeal to and not be tied to huge budgets, expecting even larger returns,