Bioware Montreal has been scaled down, Mass Effect franchise is being put on ice

[ratchetdude231]

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In the wake of BioWare’s polarizing Mass Effect: Andromeda, fans have wondered where the lauded sci-fi series will go next. The answer, according to people familiar with the studio, is nowhere—at least for the time being. BioWare has put Mass Effect on hiatus and turned Andromeda’s developer, BioWare Montreal, into a support studio, according to four sources close to the company.

 

 

That doesn’t mean there will never be another Mass Effect game, of course. It’s unlikely that BioWare will kill the popular sci-fi franchise. But BioWare is letting Mass Effect sit for a while rather than putting staff on Andromeda’s follow-up right away, those sources said.

Last month, a number of BioWare Montreal employees were transferred to the studio EA Motive, also based in Montreal, to work on Star Wars Battlefront II. Those remaining at BioWare Montreal will help support BioWare’s other games including the new intellectual property, code-named Dylan, which we expect the company to announce at E3. BioWare Montreal will also continue to patch and support Andromeda’s multiplayer.

 

BioWare’s main studio in Edmonton is heading up Dylan, while BioWare’s other studio, in Austin, is also helping out with that game.

 

Well this is sad news, but not really surprising. EA and Bioware really fucked up with this game, and it seems that EA doesn't really know what to do with this franchise anymore. I doubt it's dead, but we likely won't see another Mass Effect for a very long time.

 

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Now, sources say, BioWare Montreal is significantly smaller than it was just a few months ago. Those who didn’t go to Motive will help out with BioWare’s other projects rather than incubating and developing their own

Seems that Bioware Montreal is back to being a support studio like they were before Andromeda. They likely won't make their own game ever again. 

 

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Earlier this week on an earnings call, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson told investors that the publisher is “very happy with how BioWare is doing, how BioWare is treating Mass Effect. And our expectations for Mass Effect are still strong for the future and the franchise overall.” Wilson also put a great deal of emphasis on “live service” games, of which BioWare’s new IP is one. That’s the studio’s main focus for the time being.

I found this bit of information rather interesting. It seems that Bioware is done with making the kinds of games they are known for making and are now trying to make their own Destiny, and Division. I'm interested to see how that turns out, but after being burned with Andromeda I doubt I'm buying another EA Product for a very very long time. 

 

Source

Edited May 11, 2017 by Ratchet

[Redgrave]

Yeah we probably aren't going to see Mass Effect for a long while considering EA still has Star Wars and Battlefield to milk for the next several years. It also sounds like they didn't really think much about making more sequels to Andromeda and just made it for the sake of a sequel. But that was pretty evident from the beginning I guess.

 

Rip Mass Effect. Should have just let the Reapers win.

[BlazingCat83]

Not surprising, sadly. Hopefully nobody ends up fired.

[KingGuy420]

I think people are reading too much into this. I don't think they've ever dove right back into another Mass Effect after launching one. These articles even say they heard it from a source that wasn't actually in the company lol. Sounds to me like someone, somewhere heard they were taking a break and let rumors run rampant.

 

And as for 

 

2 hours ago, Ratchet said:

I found this bit of information rather interesting. It seems that Bioware is done with making the kinds of games they are known for making and are now trying to make their own Destiny, and Division.

They're already known for that type of game, Old Republic is technically probably the biggest game in their library.

[MissShake]

10 minutes ago, KingGuy420 said:

I think people are reading too much into this. I don't think they've ever dove right back into another Mass Effect after launching one.

 

Considering the release dates between 2 and 3, I'm going to have to disagree. Two years in between games isn't that long.

 

The article makes it sound like they put an inexperienced team on Andromeda, which if true does sort of answer a few questions about the final result. Either way, I'm not a huge fan of Kotaku so I must admit I'm taking this with a grain of salt. If it's true though, I'm really hoping no jobs were lost.

[yellowwindow7]

so mass effect going to take a seat next to dead space?

[Lightin_August]

 

 

So basically Bioware Edmonton worked on the initial trilogy, Bioware Montreal was a B-team put together to work on Andromeda while Edmonton developed a new IP. The B-team which had no purpose other than developing Andromeda is now being dispersed.

 

I gotta say as a big Mass Effect fan all the way back to the original on the 360, watching a friend play Andromeda recently was a strange experience. I felt...I don't know...like the way I feel when I think about newer Final Fantasy games, crestfallen I guess. It seemed like their best was behind them, it just looked very stale, like they're just cotent to be peddlers of mediocre derivative experiences. Oh well, we'll always have Mass Effect 2.

[Guest]

There goes the hope for quality DLCs.

[FrenchDevil54]

That's what happens when you hire a bunch of SJWs and incompetent people to take care of one of the most beloved series...

 

4 hours ago, Torracat83 said:

Not surprising, sadly. Hopefully nobody ends up fired.

 

2 hours ago, ShakeNBake663 said:

The article makes it sound like they put an inexperienced team on Andromeda, which if true does sort of answer a few questions about the final result. Either way, I'm not a huge fan of Kotaku so I must admit I'm taking this with a grain of salt. If it's true though, I'm really hoping no jobs were lost.

 

That may sound harsh but I do hope that some jobs were lost, the people responsible for ruining this franchise should never work in this industry again.

[BlazingCat83]

47 minutes ago, FrenchDevil54 said:

That's what happens when you hire a bunch of SJWs and incompetent people to take care of one of the most beloved series...

 

 

 

That may sound harsh but I do hope that some jobs were lost, the people responsible for ruining this franchise should never work in this industry again.

Well, I mean people who aren't higher ups. I don't think regular workers should be punished for their boss's incompetence.

[MissShake]

1 hour ago, FrenchDevil54 said:

That's what happens when you hire a bunch of SJWs and incompetent people to take care of one of the most beloved series...

 

That may sound harsh but I do hope that some jobs were lost, the people responsible for ruining this franchise should never work in this industry again.

 

That is pretty harsh, and I also don't think that SJW has anything to do with it. The game is mediocre even if all the women were tens.

 

It's like the person above me said. I don't think lower workers should suffer because of some obviously higher level choices that were made.

[Yami]

Have any of you even played Andromeda all the way through? If you did, you'd know there are so many hints that this is going to be another trilogy over time. 

And just like @KingGuy420 said, it always took them a good few years to release a new one anyway. 

People should really stop overreacting about this game lol. 

[MissShake]

2 minutes ago, Yami said:

Have any of you even played Andromeda all the way through? If you did, you'd know there are so many hints that this is going to be another trilogy over time. 

And just like @KingGuy420 said, it always took them a good few years to release a new one anyway. 

People should really stop overreacting about this game lol. 

 

Yes, I have played it all the way through, but just because that was the initial goal doesn't mean that they have to stick with it.

 

I can't blame people for being worried, the article has a rather negative tone to it after all.

[FrenchDevil54]

1 hour ago, Torracat83 said:

Well, I mean people who aren't higher ups. I don't think regular workers should be punished for their boss's incompetence.

 

51 minutes ago, ShakeNBake663 said:

It's like the person above me said. I don't think lower workers should suffer because of some obviously higher level choices that were made.

Agreed, I didn't mean that everybody should get fired that's why I said "some jobs" and mentioned the "people responsible".

 

52 minutes ago, ShakeNBake663 said:

That is pretty harsh, and I also don't think that SJW has anything to do with it. The game is mediocre even if all the women were tens.

I'm not talking about the women appearance (hell everybody is ugly in that game anyway lol), the main issue is the writing where they just disregard the lore of the Mass Effect universe

[charlijaen]

EA can't do anything to surprise or outrage me anymore.

They are the worst company.

I won't buy BF1 till it's 15€ or less on PS Store

I hate giving these jerks money

[MissShake]

1 minute ago, FrenchDevil54 said:

I'm not talking about the women appearance (hell everybody is ugly in that game anyway lol), the main issue is the writing where they just disregard the lore of the Mass Effect universe

 

Ah, yes I'm with ya there, on both points (like wow everyone got hit with the ugly stick). My mistake, I misunderstood what you meant

[ShadowReplicant]

Considering what an absolute disaster Andromeda was, I'd say this is good news. Back to the drawing board.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

It would be nice to talk about the flaws of Mass Effect Andromeda once without people complaining about SJWs. I don't even care if the actual complaints are sound or not, most of the time people just use the term "SJW" as a shield for their own racism and sexism. The latest weird shitstorm being people calling Horizon Zero Dawn an SJW front simply because the protagonist is female and comes from a matriarchy. Please, anyone who has played the game can find so many things wrong with that reasoning, I don't even know where to begin...

 

 

Back on topic: I think there will be only a bare few people who did not think that Andromeda was a big disappointment considering it came from such a big development/publishing team. Like @ShadowReplicant says, "back to the drawing board"... I'd love to get more stories in the Mass Effect universe but after watching a lot of gameplay videos from Andromeda, I really have zero interest in playing the game for myself even though I liked the original trilogy and loved the second game (and played through the first two games twice). I think part of the blame lies with EA for sure, and I still feel uneasy with them controlling the forseeable future of Star Wars games.

 

I know that Andromeda is supposed to be the first new game in a planned trilogy but they really need to stop and think about their next steps before starting development on any new Mass Effect game. To the few who say that they're always taking breaks in between Mass Effect games: no they're not, ME2 released just over two years after ME1 and ME3 released just over two years after ME2. That's starting development directly after finishing the previous one, if development hadn't already started during the previous one.

Edited May 11, 2017 by BillyHorrible

[MissShake]

3 hours ago, BillyHorrible said:

It would be nice to talk about the flaws of Mass Effect Andromeda once without people complaining about SJWs. I don't even care if the actual complaints are sound or not, most of the time people just use the term "SJW" as a shield for their own racism and sexism.

 

Thank you. You've put into words something I've felt for the longest time, but I never expressed because I figured no one would listen to me. Since I'm female and all I just assumed I'd be ignored and called an SJW myself ?

 

3 hours ago, BillyHorrible said:

To the few who say that they're always taking breaks in between Mass Effect games: no they're not, ME2 released just over two years after ME1 and ME3 released just over two years after ME2. That's starting development directly after finishing the previous one, if development hadn't already started during the previous one.

 

...and this too, exactly. If anything they're splitting the team up in between games into like a DLC team and a team to start the next one.

[Stargazer2600]

This really angers me...I really enjoed Andromeda for what it was and now just cause everyone wanted to bitch about it, im getting f***ed out of a new trilogy? gee, thanks

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

On 11-5-2017 at 6:02 PM, ShakeNBake663 said:

Thank you. You've put into words something I've felt for the longest time, but I never expressed because I figured no one would listen to me. Since I'm female and all I just assumed I'd be ignored and called an SJW myself

 

Well, twisting your words is their forte. I might be a straight white man myself but that doesn't mean that I feel the need to have all the games I play be populated by straight white men... True, in games with a character creator I'll create a white dude unless there's non-human options like Elves or Argonians or whatever available, but I really enjoy well-written non-white, non-male characters as well like Aveline, Adéwalé, Ratonhnhaké:ton and Evie from the Assassin's Creed series (notice that none of those have frontlined a main game? Thanks for nothing Ubi...), or Marcus from Watch_Dogs 2 and naturally Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn (a redhead to boot, how often does that happen in games?).

 

In the best possible world, gender/nationality/colour of the main character would be a non-issue. We can already have stuff like a Mexican starring in the Just Cause series or African-Americans headlining the The Walking Dead Telltale series without people getting worked up about it but unfortunately big headline stuff like Marcus from Watch_Dogs 2 or Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn (or even a colored Stormtrooper in The Force Awakens!) attracts a lot of negativity. Luckily, those games were not financial disappointments so perhaps we'll see more in the years to come.

 

Now I don't know why ME Andromeda is the target of the anti-SJWs but I'm sure it's all been blown out of proportion, I believe it was all about some comments some higher-up made about something.

 

3 hours ago, Stargazer2600 said:

This really angers me...I really enjoed Andromeda for what it was and now just cause everyone wanted to bitch about it, im getting f***ed out of a new trilogy? gee, thanks

 

Don't see it as getting fucked out of a new trilogy. See it as losing parts two and three of a trilogy that started very mediocre (even if you liked it, I doubt you'll disagree that Andromeda was not up to the level of ME2), and you'll get a chance that they'll eventually make an actually amazing trilogy.

[Undead Wolf]

Considering how Bioware is now a hollowed out shell of its former self, this is probably for the best. They care way more about appearing "progressive" than actually making a game with a good story, likeable characters, etc. These developers were probably hired based on their race/gender instead of their talent. Andromeda is the perfect example of why this is a stupid idea.

[ratchetdude231]

I wanted to add something to this when I posted the thread, but I completely forgot, so I'm just going to go ahead and post it now lol.

 

 

It honestly feels like after ME3 EA had no idea what to do with this franchise, and it also seems that after ME3 the original developers that made it were ready to move on. As a result of that you had EA (who didn't want to end the franchise since it's a big money maker) give the franchise to Bioware Montreal who clearly didn't have the experience let alone the talent to make their own game, and unfortunately this turd was the end result. 

 

It's just baffling that EA thought it was a good idea to give this franchise to a studio that had never really made a game before. From my understanding Bioware Montreal was pretty much just a support studio that helped develop the multiplayer in ME3 and helped with various DLC for ME3. History has shown us time and time again that giving a well known IP to a studio it doesn't belong to never works. The only game in recent memory that was handled by a completely different developer from the one that did the original games and was actually good was Sly 4. 

 

I haven't played the original Mass Effect trilogy, and honestly I haven't played many Bioware games, but I think it's probably for the best that EA just ends this franchise. ME3 ending controversy aside this franchise had it's time, and there was a trilogy of 3 games that people loved and adored and frankly it should have ended there. Given the troubled history of this game it was probably a bad idea for it to ever be made in the first place.  I know some will say this game was supposed to be the start of a new trilogy and blah blah, but regardless of it was supposed to be the start of a new trilogy or just a standalone game it's obvious that it was very poorly thought out and as you can see from the shit storm this game caused it probably should have never existed in the first place. 

 

 

[MissShake]

I know this topic is old, but Kotaku did another article about Andromeda: The Story Behind Mass Effect: Andromeda's Troubled Five-Year Development. The writer apparently got some ex staff members to talk about it under the promise of anonymity, so it could honestly be made up, but it's an interesting article.

 

It's a super long read, so I'll give some highlights:
 

Spoiler

“The goal was to go back to what Mass Effect 1 promised but failed to deliver, which was a game about exploration,” said one person who worked on the game. “Lots of people were like, ‘Hey, we never fully tapped the potential of the first Mass Effect. We figured out the combat, which is awesome. We figured out the narrative. Let’s focus on bringing back exploration.’”

This, in my opinion, was a huge mistake. The reason I liked the original trilogy and the Dragon Age games was because of an interesting cast. The setting is just a backdrop to me getting to know them.

 

Another of Lehiany’s ideas was that there should be hundreds of explorable planets. BioWare would use algorithms to procedurally generate each world in the game, allowing for near-infinite possibilities, No Man’s Sky style.

Interesting, but again, not the reason I personally play Bioware games.

 

“What you see [in the final game] is writing that has been done in the past two years rather than the full five years of writing,” said a developer on the game. “The writing team—writing the characters and everything—was unleashed too late, just because of too many discussions about the high-level direction.”

 

There is also a lot of finger pointing, ranging from the Frostbite Engine (which I have heard is tough to use) to blaming Bioware Edmonton which I found particularly rich: developers in Montreal thought that Edmonton was trying to sabotage them, taking ideas and staff from Montreal for its own projects, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Dylan.

 

 

But really it seems to be like I said earlier in the thread: it was a title that was way too ambitious for a team that just wasn't ready for it.

[DennisWilles]

This company which developed many of my favorite games has just gone downhill so much.. ever since DA:I they tried to push some screwed up, social justice agenda that has absolutely no place in these games. Do they even know their playerbase? Why try to please a movement of people that mostly doesn't play video games? Way to disappoint your loyal fans.

 

I know one of the lead developers actually posts male/white-hating tweets. Don't believe me? Here's an example: http://archive.is/pXuYb

 

With this attitude and lack of experience it was obvious that this game would fail. When you own a company, you should hire the most qualified person for the job and not please some diversity quota. They only have themselves to blame for this so good riddance. 

 

Edited June 11, 2017 by BlindMango