Promotional material from BioWare’s Anthem
Over the past few months, BioWare has essentially transformed into a single-game studio as it harnesses its teams to work on the ambitious multiplayer action game Anthem, sources say. There are still small teams maintaining Star Wars: The Old Republic and piecing together the next Dragon Age, which was recently rebooted, but the bulk of BioWare’s staff in both Edmonton and Austin are now on Anthem. And there’s a sense among BioWare employees that the company’s future is inextricably tied to this game.
Anthem, which was announced at E3 2017, is now scheduled for release in early 2019, according to three people familiar with the project. The “fall 2018” window mentioned during that E3 announcement was “never realistic,” one source said.
Exact dates remain in flux — and Anthem‘s developers must also plan for a beta release, an EA Access launch, and an ongoing schedule of patches and updates — but it appears unlikely to developers that publisher EA will allow BioWare to delay the game any further than March 2019, when the company’s 2019 fiscal year comes to an end.
(EA, like most publicly traded companies, uses the fiscal calendar as a basis for all of its decisions, as those dates determine how investors will behave.)
BioWare, founded in 1995, has long been seen as one of the world’s most prestigious developers of role-playing games, thanks to hits like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Mass Effect trilogy, and Dragon Age Origins.
In 2007, EA purchased the studio, expanding it beyond its original office in Edmonton and putting BioWare studios in Austin, Montreal, and Virginia. (The latter two were later shut down.)
It’s not unusual for BioWare to pull staff from other projects as it enters the final year of production on a game. In recent years, BioWare has done the same for both Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition. But Anthem, the studio’s first new franchise in eight years and EA’s first big stab at a Destiny-style persistent online world, feels different.
To BioWare staff, the stakes feel higher than they ever have. As one developer told me, there’s a belief that if Anthem doesn’t live up to EA’s expectations, BioWare will look very different in the future, especially after the disappointment of Mass Effect Andromeda led to EA absorbing BioWare Montreal into the studio EA Motive.
Now, with a year left in development and a climate that’s grown more turbulent thanks to controversies over EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II and Activision’s Destiny 2, pressure is mounting for Anthem to be great.
In the past few weeks I’ve spoken to more than half a dozen people close to the project, all of whom spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to talk about the game, and they have described feeling both optimistic and anxious — optimistic that they can make something good, but anxious at the number of forces that appear to be pushing against them.
Anthem has been in development since 2012, at first under Mass Effect director Casey Hudson, who left the company in 2014 (and returned last year to lead BioWare as studio head). The game remained in preproduction at BioWare’s lead Edmonton studio for a very long time. Some close to the Anthem team have criticised that fact, suggesting that the game’s development was floundering, but veteran Anthem staff point out that most big new franchises have long gestation periods.
Destiny, most notably, was in preproduction for years as the developers at Bungie tried to figure out what a persistent multiplayer shooter might look like. At points during 2014 and 2015, I heard several rumours that the Anthem project was not going well, in part because of the long-running issues that BioWare has faced with its engine, Frostbite, and in part because making a game of this nature can be an excruciating process.
Over the last year, as Anthem‘s production ramped up and BioWare began putting more and more of its staff on the project, things appear to have improved. When I asked one source recently whether Anthem‘s struggles fell more into the category of “this game is screwed” or “game development is really hard,” the source said that over time, it had veered from the former into the latter.
Other people close to BioWare have said similar things, although it’s not hard to find developers willing to complain about Frostbite, the game engine initially designed for EA’s Battlefield games, which has impeded many of BioWare’s projects over the past decade.
The past year has been tumultuous for BioWare and involved some major changes to the studio. One was to reboot the fourth Dragon Age, which at the time was code-named Joplin, according to two sources. (There’s a running theme here — Anthem‘s codename was Dylan.) The goal, those sources said, was to implement more “live” elements into the game, although two of those sources stressed that this next Dragon Age will still have a heavy focus on characters and story, whenever it does come out.
It’s not clear what a “live” version of Dragon Age might look like, but EA has been public about its embrace of games as a service, and its lack of interest in releasing $US60 ($75) games that do not have any sort of revenue tail, whether that means paid extra content, microtransactions, or something else.
BioWare has also discussed ending development on the multiplayer online game Star Wars: The Old Republic, those sources said, although one person familiar with the studio told me recently that plans are still up in the air.
What’s clear is that both BioWare studios, Edmonton and Austin, are singularly focused on Anthem, and will be until that game comes out. Even Mark Darrah, executive producer and shepherd of the Dragon Age franchise, was recently moved to Anthem. In June, shortly after Anthem‘s reveal, Darrah tweeted that he was not working on the game. But things have changed.
Minutes after we heard back from an EA spokesperson saying the publisher was declining to comment on this article, Darrah tweeted that he is working on both Anthem and Dragon Age — his apparent first public acknowledgement that he is now on Anthem. “Anthem‘s up next but there are people hard at work on both franchises and I look forward to sharing more in the future,” he said. The creative director of the Dragon Age series, Mike Laidlaw, left BioWare last year.
Even with both of BioWare’s studios all-in on Anthem, some developers have expressed anxieties, in large part because of 2017’s other events. First there was Mass Effect Andromeda, a high-profile failure that disappointed fans last spring and led to the closure of BioWare Montreal, as well as Mass Effect getting put on ice.
Veteran members of the Anthem team were thrilled to finally unveil the game at E3 in June 2017, but a month later, BioWare studio head Aaryn Flynn departed, to be replaced by Casey Hudson. Both men are well-respected at the company, but this sort of top executive shuffling often leads to worry.
Then, in November 2017, widespread player anger over loot boxes and microtransactions in EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II shook up the entire video game industry. From what I’ve heard, the loot box controversy has led a number of big video game studios, including BioWare, to reexamine their plans for microtransactions in future games. Although Anthem‘s microtransaction plans are still undecided (and, I hear, may only involve cosmetics), the outrage has left some developers on edge.
Most recently, sources say, Anthem‘s developers have been watching the ongoing anger in the Destiny 2 community over the state of that game. Destiny fans have grown irritated at Destiny 2‘s lack of content, Bungie’s poor communication, and the lingering feeling that Destiny 2 is repeating its predecessor’s mistakes.
Although fans and pundits have suggested that Destiny 2‘s inability to capture hardcore players may leave an opening for Anthem to grab that crowd, some BioWare developers have expressed worry that their game will face its own growing pains, as all games of this nature do. Most persistent action games have had to recover from rocky launches, including Destiny, Diablo III, and The Division. The question is: how much patience will EA have for Anthem?
And then there’s the toxicity problem, as video game pundits seize any opportunity to stoke anger at big publishers. Two people who have worked on Anthem both expressed anxiety to me about the ways some big YouTubers have spread misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric about EA, saying that it has a demoralising effect on those people on the ground level.
To people who work for EA, the publisher isn’t just a cold corporate master — it is a complicated machine that, yes, is concerned first and foremost with generating revenue for investors, but also supports thousands of people in many tangible and intangible ways.
People close to BioWare, along with many other developers I’ve talked to in recent months, worry that commentary from some of YouTube’s loudest voices has eliminated nuance and made companies like EA seem like Disney villains.
If you’re a BioWare fan, there are certainly reasons to be hopeful. Anthem‘s staff have shown a willingness to be transparent and engage with fans, as technical design director Brenon Holmes posts frequently on Reddit to answer questions and share details on the game.
What we’ve seen of the game has looked spectacular, even if last year’s footage seems a little too pretty to be real. One thing is undeniable, however: For BioWare, the pressure is on.
Comments
67 responses to “BioWare Doubles Down On Anthem As Pressure Mounts”
The ghost of EA future has dug fresh grave, the headstone reads bioware.
This pretty much sums it up. If I was on the BioWare payroll, I’d be looking to shop my CV around ASAP before you have to compete with a whole studio’s worth of people who just got laid off.
After they half assed Andromeda this is their last chance. Heck if Anthem isn’t the megablockbuster EA wants then I can see them killing Bioware and moving Dragon Age to another in house studio
They F*cked over Mass Effect Andromeda to get more staff onto Anthem. If Anthem fails, expect Bioware to be shut.
Mass Effect Andromeda was the final nail in the coffin for me.
No thanks.
I get that feeling too…
Tied to this game? Oh dear. This type of game, at this moment in time, under this publisher. I mean… on reading the room, ‘pressure?’ Hell, I’d be leaning towards, ‘sense of impending doom’.
Will be sad to watch as this game sinks one of the industry’s former greats.
I’m quietly optimistic. but then I also thought Andromeda wasn’t bad.
I’m with you. Copying Destiny isnt a bad thing, its problems were with the business decisions, not the game engine. It doesnt need much to be changed for that game type to work extremely well, and while it was handpicked footage, what I’ve seen from anthem suggests they have the core concepts right. For that reason, I’m quietly optimistic as well.
The idea itself is great, I’m pretty keen to see where they take this game. If they can avoid doing what Bungie are doing (Performing dodgy mechanics, not communicating, promising to do better and then not doing so) they will be absolutely fine. Assuming that Frostbite doesn’t come to bite them in the ass.
That E3 trailer showed of a heavily forested game world which is useless in a 3rd person game such as Anthem as you won’t be able to see your character so the gameplay will take place in pocketet areas while the background forest is still being rendered in game, That’s resource heavy & shows how little Bioware understand the Frostbite game engine, If only DICE wasn’t EA’s favorite child, Bioware wouldn’t be hurting so bad having to “Make do” with Frostbite.
We’ve got a Frostbite developer here.
Quick, email Jason, I’m sure you have valuable information that’s just wasted down here in the comments.
Nope i’ve just read far too many Bioware/Frostbite related articles.
Hey mate, if you know more about the inner workings please get in touch.
copying borderlands*
I genuinely can’t think of any games published by EA in the last 6 or 7 years that haven’t been disappointing… I now associate EA with disappointment, so I can’t get excited for any of their games no matter how hard I try 🙁
That’s an unfortunate reality. Anthem doesn’t just have to be good, it has to be good enough to overcome the current (richly deserved) dislike of EA.
EA’s been here before. They’ll eventually sort things out for a year or so before making another bone-headed dive for cash.
Yep. I still remember when they released Dead Space and Mass Effect and I couldn’t believe the amazing new direction that EA were going in.
Then Dragonage came out. Woohoo!
But that was at least 10 years ago and all of those franchises have been run into the ground. Not to mention how many others.
Sucks but I too am not expecting anything from this at all.
Yea they took some of my favourite games and defiled them, took what was good and prostituted it to maximise profits, leaving a trail of tainted IP’s behind. I don’t expect anything genuinely good from them ever again….
Crysis 3? Playing as a black male lead in a video game was good, Also Prophet was a badass .
Crisis 3 was actually not too bad… credit where it is due
I just want KOTOR 3, but I’ll give Anthem a go.
Unfortunately the closest you’ll get is the jedi knight story in SWTOR.
Thanks for the update Kotaku… Personally, I think there are two things worth considering here.
One. The argument that people are angry at EA is an interesting one. There are some valid observations from employees who have to work in said environment, but at some stage we have to acknowledge that the problem did not appear from thin air. EA have shown persistent direction for which it is being increasingly criticised as it fails to demonstrate any real change. This is really no different from… fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me… full me ten times… what do I say now. Do I feel sorry for people who have to work in that environment, yes. Does that mean that all of the sudden I have to be nice to a company that I have seen persistently ignore things that I think are good for gaming and pursue exploitation of its customer base, the answer is still no. But I will tell you this, I will be happy to meet EA half way, however, given my past experiences I am expecting that EA will show, beyond any doubt, that it is pursuing that mid-point first.
Two. Half Life 3… that should be enough said. In a modern day and age it is impossible to make a video game that will please everyone and if you continue to persist at trying then you have only yourself to blame for when it fails. Destiny 2 is not a bad game, I enjoyed it and I consider it my money’s worth. The issue here is that a lot of people see it as be all, end all, as religion, as long term event and as many other things. Making a game that becomes a trend (something like Destiny or Overwatch) is a challenge all in itself and more often than not you do your best and if you end up creating something that becomes a thing, you are happy with the result. The problem have always been that BioWare defies that process and assumes that just because it is BioWare, it can make what it wants just by saying it. At first there was Neverwinter Nights, which was a spiritual sequel to Baldur’s Gate, when that did not work out, Dragon Age became said sequel. Then there was The Old Republic that a continuation of the Knights of the Old Republic and when it was not accepted as so… disappointed ensured.
In the end, when Anthem arrives, it will have a rocky start (because this is the first type of this product for BioWare) it will disappoint certain groups of players and it will not be perfect. Perhaps accepting those things, having a target audience and future plans for improvement is the way forward (see The Division) rather than trying to be everything for everyone and in a perfect state all on day one.
Let’s not pretend this is a case of YouTubers launching a smear campaign. EA are responsible for being seen as the bad guys. They’ve been seen as bad guys since long before YouTube existed. They do bad shit all day long. Their entire role in the industry is to gut good stuff.
I don’t know… EA didn’t get to be really bad until around the mid 2000s, when it became focused more on just pushing titles quickly each year. This is also where game production values started to really ramp up and we became a lot less tolerant of subpar products. I don’t think YouTube has the blame of it but social media attitudes to Devs or publisher’s definitely do play a big role in perception of a game.
Ppl’s attitudes to some devs is warented in some cases, Have you ever brought a 505 or Starbreese game? Stay away from the Raid Ww2!.
505 I’ll give you, but Starbreeze? As developers they’ve always been pretty good. As publishers I guess they’re a bit mixed, but they have Psychonauts 2 and System Shock 3 on the way, so here’s hoping.
As devs they’re good, They did (Riddick escape from butcher’s bay) But that quality doesn’t extend to all those who develop for them, Raid Ww2 is such a mess that the disc version won’t even accept patches! Lion game lion are the worst. Digital version is just as bad. It’s amazing how bad it is.
The rise of (very)amateur YouTube journalism has given rise to painting a much more personal picture on to big business, and often with broad strokes. EA as a company turn from a company that do some pretty morally bankrupt things, but also produce some amazing games into a moustache twirling villain. You say it yourself:
They also produce games like Fe, they also rolled the dice on a Mirror’s Edge sequel due to fan outcry, even though history suggested that game was never going to be a big seller, even if it was excellent.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a big EA fan, I really hope they get their act together, it just sucks that the studio is now worried that people will boycott EA, and therefore the game. That will mean the game may not do as well as it could and EA may close the studio. Part of this is the creation of an emotional narrative by YouTube personalities.
It won’t be Anthem, specifically, that critics of EA call to boycott. It’ll be the next example of microtransaction AAA horse-shit.
If Anthem releases without manipulative, tight-fisted monetization bullshit, including the disgustingly manipulative lootbox quasi-gambling douchebaggery, it’s hard to imagine any of the vocal EA-bashers will have much problem with it at all, let alone call for boycotts.
…So, expect well-deserved calls for boycotts, I guess.
If people actually did boycott it would make a bigger impact. Despite outrage people still sink astounding amounts of money into EA’s microtransaction machines.
I guess they took at least a bit of a hit from SW:BF2, so we’ll see. EA are 100% predictable – they’re a publicly traded company that is legally obligated to make the largest possible return for their investors. They will never choose art over profit. It’s up to customers to not reward anti-consumer practices.
Honestly, I think there’s a certain crowd of people who are just as much to blame along with the likes of EA and their admittedly predatory tactics.
The crowd who run their mouths before actually seeing what the loot boxes and/or microtransactions ACTUALLY do to a game.
Such people were painting Monolith/Warner Bros as the devil because Shadow of War had loot boxes… But then when it actually came out we discover you simply didn’t have to buy a single one to do anything in that game quite effectively.
Same thing with Destiny 2, a game which gives you so many of the ‘paid’ loot boxes for free it simply perplexed me that the option to buy them was even there.
If Anthem has ANY microtransactions at all, and you can be sure it will, people are going to cry foul no matter what said loot boxes or microtransactions actually do and act like Bioware just killed a puppy.
Oh fuck off, EVEN WARNER BROS admitted the lootboxes in shadow of war broke progression and made the orks in game less meaningfull
If they didnt think it was a bad diea they wouldnt have totally removed them from the game, they wouldnt have admitted to making the ending a grind, they wouldnt have then made the grind less bad in the same patch that removed lootboxes
The grind and tedium was just there to push the ork boxes, and that broke the entire balance of the game for those who didnt want to shell out for them
The boxes in shadow of war WERE the devil because the game was balanced towards them so bad they ended up taking them out of the game, fuck off being an apologist for the worst most exploitative game design tactics out there
Thanks for proving my point, you see ‘loot box’ and start screeching no matter what.
Such as when they’re not actually required to play or progress through a game, which was absolutely the case with Shadow of War. Even during the shadow wars at the end lootboxes were STILL unnecessary and would make little difference either way. So if you think that whole game was a lootbox balanced grind, then I am only left to wonder if you even actually played it before running your mouth. Because I actually played it, and didn’t spend a cent on loot boxes.
And if you think Warner Bros/Monolith are removing them for any reason other than “Hey, maybe we can get some more sales by removing loot boxes so we look like champions to people who flip their shit over lootboxes.” then you are absolutely delusional. They’ve got people like you on lock, and it is amazing watching people act like their changes were some sort of heroic deed.
I remember when they bought Origin. And closed it down. And they were known for doing that years before it happened. This is not a new thing.
Origin is still running. Did you mean something else?
I think he was referring to Origin Systems, the makers of Wing Commander and Ultima series…
Ah right, makes more sense.
Oh jesus. Well I guess it was back in the day.
Yeah man Origin Systems. But everyone just called them Origin. They were THE cutting edge gaming company when I was in high school.
I loved all of their games. Wing Commander 2 was the first game that I paid for out of my own money.
Ultima, Strike Commander, Privateer, Crusader. Bioforge. So many classics came from them.
And EA bought them and that was all she wrote.
Oh yeah, I remember them. It’s just since the distribution system is also called Origin it threw me off. All good!
Showing my age I think!
Those days still feel recent, then I do the math and realise that they were 25 years ago. Long time!
A million fucking times this.
I do not understand how anyone is giving EA a pass for anything these days. Look at their history. They were founded to treat their staff well. They treat them like shit. Over the years they have bought many well regarded game dev houses, then treated them like shit, forced them to produce content in line with “EA principles” (i.e. maximum profit) which ends up destroying what made them great. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.
EA is being called “the bad guy” by “amateur YouTubers” because it’s the bloody truth.
BioWare died a few years ago, EA have just been using its name in a “Weekend At Bernie’s” routine since then.
Well said 🙂
People aren’t perceiving nuance because there isn’t any nuance when it comes to EA. All publishers and developers mess up occasionally, and I can list off a whole bunch of stupid, greedy and/or malicious things perpetuated by companies like Capcom, Blizzard, Nintendo, etc. But unlike them, EA have very consistently demonstrated an almost comical contempt for consumers and have thrown countless good games and concepts under the bus for financial gain (Battlefront 2 being almost too good as an example). They took their bad reputation and kept doubling down on the things that got them there, so it’s no wonder that people see them this way.
I don’t begrudge a company for wanting to make money and generate a return for investors. What I do begrudge is all of the details of how EA has gone about doing this for the last 10 years, and they only have themselves to blame for the reaction.
I’m sure it sucks to get wrapped into that as one of the many creative individuals within Bioware and EA as a whole, but they can’t argue that EA’s reputation is undeserved or overblown. If anything, I’m surprised it took as long as it did to blow up.
Bye Bioware, it was nice knowing you.
But really, you died years ago.
What I hate most about the new age of game design is the gamers (casual and hardcore) scream for content, they want to have 100 hours of play time of new stuff however it seems like they get bombarded with “It must look flawless”. In recent times, PUBG, super successful thus far, looked->freakin->horrible, but had amazing gameplay and was a fun game for any player. Look what they’re doing, releasing content and fixing up visuals.
I didn’t think it was that hard?
Tell them to ask disney for rights to a new kotor game when they are done with this project. That will actually get everyone excited.
SWTOR nearly killed Bioware due to lack of support and marketing by EA and a terrible release schedule.
EA blamed Bioware for thier mistakes and had the aatudio restructured as they went free2play and created a new version that list them a lot if their original subscriber vase and repkace the game content with microtransactions and loot boxes after 8 months of development hell.
That turned Bioware into a shadow of its former self and made EA a lootbox addicted corporation…
… and now we have Anthem. Bioware licking its wounds after Mass Effect and EA trying to figure out when is it a goid time to put in lootboxes despite the Battlefront II fiasco and the issues their main conpetiror Destiny II gas failed to sell lootboxes or retain customers.
In the end EA will either get a reduced return on investment due to anti-loot box consumers and blame Bioware for that. Or will forve Bioware ro push in atrocious loot boxes that will tick off pkayers and lose long term player numbers and will blame Bioware for…
Either way EA will whip Bioware until they break or players do… and blame Bioware in the end.
RIP Bioware. Dwath by corporate greed and micromanagement
Looks like Destiny mixed with Warframe…
i admit, i was on the “screw you bioware from deviating from your normal RPG remit”
but now i am hopeful.. Hopeful it will be a great game,
if they make fall 2018, then they are competing with Destiny 2 with all its Destiny 1 features re-implemented (lol).. if its like the trailer above, i would rather play this than destiny.
Beware the hype you must. lies lead to hype, hype leads to purchase, purchase leads to dispair. Despair leads to the darkside. The dark side leads to lootboxes. 🙁
I was willing to give Anthem a shot when I first saw it but I am starting to wonder why. It doesn’t really seem like what I want from Bioware. I don’t like Destiny and don’t want Bioware type of that game. And this talk of a “live” Dragon Age is not encouraging either. I enjoyed Inquisition IN SPITE of the mobile phone elements not because of them.
I don’t want to join the bash bandwagon and don’t want to be unduly aggressive towards Bioware but I think they should be careful of what they do going forward. I enjoyed both Inquisition and Mass Effect 3 and have defended both games but I am getting tired. They seem to be moving further and further down a path that just seems uninteresting to me. Bioware, EA, beware.
I’d be sad to see BioWare sink. They made some of my all time favorite games. And I thought, when DA:O came out, that they were going to be at the forefront of the resurgence of truly great CRPGs.
Instead they immediately drove that franchise off a cliff and gradually replaced the writing staff that made their classic games superb with (AFAICT) bad fanfic authors.
So yeah… it’d be really sad to see them go down because of their history, but OTOH when you don’t make a good game for 8 years maybe it’s time to hang it up.
Brilliant news. Love how so many think this is a bad thing.
That trailer looks absolutely amazing. I hope they can do it.
Mark my words, Anthem will be the Mass Effect Andromeda of 2019. Get out while you can! Just a shame Dragon Age will suffer because of this.
Doomsday alert
One thing I love about EA is that they have this bizarre habit of taking studios (Bioware) that are great in one genre (RPG’s) and getting them to make games in a completely different genre (online multiplayer shooter)
EA to me feel like they care about the shareholders first and look at gamers the way a fisherman looks at fish or a farmer looks at cows.
I don’t believe that their audiences enjoyment of their product rates very high on their priorities. In fact I feel more like they will sacrifice the playes enjoyment (or fun factor or whatever), in a heartbeat if they think it will make them a quick buck.
To be fair that is how companies do operate. But other companies at least try to maintain a thin facade that they care about their customers. EA has long ago slashed, burnt and mutilated that facade.
I as a customer think that EA would screw me over in an instant for a dollar. That is the image they portray and their behaviour throughout my generations of being a gamer they have only gotten worse.
And small smell of microtransactions in this game upon release and it will ruin it. EA would best leave microtransactions out of it completely.
Right now the gaming community is a hornets nest. And EA’s shitty Monetization practices are poking that hornest nest repeatedly. It will backfire on them even worse than BF2
EA are probably looking at Anthem and thinking “What can we do to prevent what happened to Battlefront 2 happening to Anthem?” and someone will suggest “More Microtransactions?” and then they will all go out to celebrate the brilliant idea.
I think it went more like
“What can we do to prevent what happened to Battlefront 2 happening to Anthem?”
“No microtransactions?”
“SECURITY REMOVE THIS MAN”
“Now, I think we should add more microtransactions…..”
Nonono we will remove the microtransactions… but leave in all the terrible game crippling design elements we made to “encourage”(coerce) people to purchase (gamble) them in the first place.
And when the commotion dies down we can reimplement them within seconds.
BRILlIANT! The man has it we can also add in 29 crypto currencies. We also will in Clyde reverse lootboxes. Where you get a randomised selection of loot BUT the amount withdrawn from your bank account is completely random. Players will feel The truest sense of achiement and accomplishment by emptying their wallets into our Scrooge McDuck style moneybins. That is what we believe at EA.
Money b4 art
Cash b4 fun
Players = whales just waiting to happen.
Public opinion ≠ monies
When I think BioWare I think excellent story within a brilliant SP world; unfortunately EA wants 6 flavours of online shooters with loot boxes.
I played an online multiplayer for almost 3 years it became the centre of my social world the game while still fun in some aspects was secondary to the social network of friends it was a way to meet and connect with other people from all over the world all with very different life stories /experiences. One continued discussion was the desperation of the game devs to make money from it when i realised how important the people were to me not the game but the people that I spoke to every day and how I would feel if they all just vanished because the game shut. So I spent money on it. Almost every one that i spoke to on that OMP agreed that having a monthly subscription would have been way better then the twisted and bizarre ways that the devs attempted to get players to spend money they changed the game so much a lot of us stopped playing and we were spending money on it. A lot of players feel ripper off confused and shocked at what the companies do to make money within a game. SO LISten up DONT f–k with in game transactions just make it really simple monthly subscription for a good gorgeous game that people can do a lot of sandbox stuff. where players can make the game work the way that they want it to outside of the combat action aspect of it. I’ve been playing for a long time going all the way back to dots on a screen dungeons and dragons on a Texas Instrument pc. I got to see the fist mock ups of what a joy stick was. At the end of the day it does not matter if its destiny cod overwatch doom yes i played the original systemshock. So many games feel the same if your talking about fps even if it has slick graphics and fun shooting if the devs want it to last for more then “RIGHT WHAT IS NEXT”
they need plays to be able have their own water gardens full of naked women or unicorns or dancing elves like sure go out and kill things for credits but what can you do with those credits buy a biger gun “NO shit a BIGger gun laughs and walks away” if the game does not have a relly solid hardcore story like the last of us people will move onto the next new thing soon as its out but let a player have ownership of their own space within game like the holo deck on star trek HEy look everyone i built my own viking drinking hall with a long ship hanging from the ceiling with the credits i made from killing rockboggers in the jungle where as my friend lesia has a Tardis back at her house and a tennis court with male stripers. and jim has his very one Ewok village that you can swing from tree to tree Give a player ownership that they enjoy personally creating and building look at mine-craft for example enough said.