I don’t preorder games very often, but I preordered this. The first game is wonderful, and it seems like they learned their lesson about sticking the landing at launch. They even made their DLC release calendar public. I’m really excited to start it.
It’s clear that this has become a make-or-break game for BioWare based on Veilguard’s reception and sales performance.
I’m inclined to think they decided to re-tool for that reason.
Yeah, I don’t know how many times people need to learn this lesson, but don’t spend $100 on an online game if you can’t afford to lose it all. Especially don’t do it if you’re unstable and think death threats are a justifiable response.
From everything I’ve heard about their plans for the next Xbox, they’re aiming to compete on game portability, graphics, and ecosystem preference (including GamePass).
For portability, it sounds like they mean playing on your console, moving your game to your SteamDeck-like Xbox handheld, or even playing via cloud streaming on your phone. Cloud streaming has never interested me, but an Xbox handheld that played your back catalog locally could be compelling and a reason to continue buying for Xbox.
Graphics, well, I think we’ve long-since reached the point of diminishing returns, given I can’t even really see the difference between PS5 and PS5 Pro.
And even though I prefer Xbox’s ecosystem and have invested quite a bit in it over the years (I have nearly 100,000 GS), I would have to see a pretty compelling reason to buy an entirely redundant console when every game I might want would be available on PlayStation or Nintendo.
Basically, if they introduce a SteamDeck-like handheld, that would do it for me. Otherwise, I’d have to put some thought into whether or not I’d want yet another giant console in my TV stand.
If leadership hadn’t made bad decision after bad decision, the company wouldn’t be in this mess.
I’m a BioWare fan from way back. I’ve played nearly every BioWare game they’ve ever released, as they were released, including that Sonic Chronicles RPG that I had zero interest in. In most cases I finished them with 100%, even with The Veilguard, which was bland and forgettable in nearly every way. The Mass Effect trilogy is one of my favorite game series of all time.
But. If they make Mass Effect 5 some shitty live service game, I’m not going near it and they might as well just close BioWare and absorb the few employees still around into the EA mothership. It hasn’t been “classic BioWare” for over a decade.
EA: where great studios go to die