How BioWare can make an unlikely comeback, and why it never will: The first step is cancelling Mass Effect
The once prestigious RPG studio is in a serious rut, but there's a way out.
https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mass-effect/how-bioware-can-make-an-unlikely-comeback-and-why-it-never-will-the-first-step-is-cancelling-mass-effect/Open linkView original on piefed.world
I think the only "issue" with Mass Effect was that they failed to make a trilogy (or really do anything) with Andromeda. They teased a Quarian DLC at the end, but that never came to be. They teased some kind of Shepard/Liara reunion with another video, but that never came to be, either. Now they're (not BioWare but Amazon) making a TV show, but they're trying to turn it away from the fans to bring in more viewers, which doesn't look good for us.
They ran out of ideas. Only way to really spin it. They made Mass Effect for the same reason Obsidian made Fallout New Vegas. "We can do it better than you did." For BioWare, it was the Star Wars IP. For Obsidian, it was Fallout 3, after Bethesda bought it from Black Isle (which more or less became Obsidian — or at least the latter involved a lot of talent from the former). So BioWare made this awesome mashup of Star Wars and Star Trek and maybe some other IPs, and it was great... but they ran out of ideas. And Andromeda was fun, but it was also kinda derpy, especially at the end with all the fetch quests. You 100% the five planets you can terraform, and then what? Hours of... fetch quests? And you can never even do the first one (the one where Ryder's dad eats it)? What's that about? (I know they said the vault on that world was broke, but they just pulled that outta darkspace, it was an off-handed remark, they never tried to go back and fix that world... I had to consult a Wiki to actually go back there, and you can't land on it.)
So yeah, they need a new franchise.
At this point does anyone really want Mass Effect 5? Shepard is gone, no one cares about Ryder, the Reapers were beaten... I mean what else is there?
Best thing for them to do is make a TV show that works the ME5 trailer — note, they never said ME5, what they said was "Mass Effect will return," which could mean show, it could mean game, it could mean manga/graphic novel... it's wide open — into its narrative, and go out that way, since apparently the show is happening.
Even "in universe" content might be a way to bridge revenue between ME and the next franchise if they've run out of ideas. Star Wars has made an insanely successful business taking "background" characters or events and expanding on them. To be honest in my opinion those constitute some of the best Star Wars IP, whereas attempts to return to the "main storyline" (Jedi vs Sith) kinda suck.
Personally I'd love to see a deeper dive into Cerberus. Depending on your ME3 crew comp and romance options they sometimes just didn't seem very relevant to the endgame, or really have much purpose other than the storytelling device used to justify Shepherd still being alive.
Even a look into the previous experiences of the crew would be cool, which is fairly simple given they were all given relatively rich backstory to fill out dialogue.
But I 100% agree the main story should end, especially after Andromeda already provided a look into the future of the Galaxy post-Reapers.
As long as EXODUS keeps progressing, we'll get our ME fix. Really looking forward to playing.
I thought you said “As long as the exodus from BioWare keeps progressing.”
Is that still correct? Is Exodus being developed by ex-BioWare folk?
Yes, from Wiki: Exodus is an upcoming science fiction role-playing game developed by Archetype Entertainment, a studio founded by former BioWare developers James Ohlen, Chad Robertson, and Drew Karpyshyn, and published by Wizards of the Coast.
I'll be surprised if they survive the buyout