Mass Effect hiatus speculation and reactions (consolidated thread)

Exactly - check the date. Laidlaw tweeted that March 31st, not April 1st.

Hope we will still get at least one or two DLCs for MEA, so the open questions will be answered (Quarian Ark, Ryder's mom etc.)

You're suggesting there would be future ME games. If this article is even 50% true, that means no more ME, ever.  So you'd rather have no more ME?

EA just pushed Biowares new IP to a FY 2019 release

Dylan is the Secret IP. It's supposed to be similar to Destiny. And we are almost certainly getting Dragon Age, btw.

A three year development cycle makes sense for BioWare and, typically, is how they handle their game sales. I doubt after the heat they took for DA2 they'll ever do a two year development cycle for a game again...which I think blows, but isn't surprising.

The fact that EA is using personnel from BW to support ongoing projects is far less surprising. EA has shown in the past they have no issues shuttering developers who under perform and laying off staff if sales are off. I'm not seeing that here, just a reallocation of personnel. We'll see if a reduction in force occurs in the near future. That would be indicative of a loss in revenue.

ROFL. I got the joke. Yeah, possibly... 

Dylan then byebye?

"It's not a thing until it's a thing" sounds to me like "It's not worth talking about before it's been announced".

Of course, that could be just me in denial, but honestly, Inquisition not having a sequel in the works, considering how much money it made, would be downright appalling.

Not to mention all those teasing tweets.

You'll be waiting longer, they pushed it another 6 months

Not really dominating gaming news, which is why I don't know whether to really believe it or not. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if they put the franchise on a hiatus due to under performing, but bioware has also downsized studios and moved them into other projects in the past as well. It's really a need more info situation if you ask me.

I'll bite and speculate: let's say they are doing this because it underperformed, it would be best to put future games on hold as quite honestly, andromeda is the most boring mass effect game, and I've already stated in the past it's the first one I can't replay cause it lacks replay value. It's a fun one and done game but it's not great. You also have to take into consideration critically, the game was a bust. It's why it's funny people would blame "trolls" as to why this is happening, are you in that much denial to fail to realize that universally the game didn't appeal to a large ass chunk of people? Are people "trolls" for simply disliking the game and criticizing it? I'm sorry, but there's no way you can blame the fans due to a developer slacking off on a game, it's as asanine and it doesn't change the fact that the game failed critically. This also lends support to why EA skipped andromedas sales earnings in their quarterly meeting, they're not going to openly admit their game sold less than expected as that's a red flag to buyers and investors.

Now let's go with the other speculation that they're merely moving people to help on other projects: it's been done before, andromeda even has some articles on other bioware studios helping Montreal out. Odds are the main focus will be on current projects first, and then moving onto the next one after the current one is completed. I'd say DA4 and the new ip are the main focus and it makes sense to down size Montreal to other studios as the next sequel to andromeda would be in pre-development for the next year or so if they were to make another ME game.

All in all: I don't think there's enough info to really prove that Montreal was shrunk and ME is put on hold due to andromeda, I can believe it and I can also believe them simply focusing on other projects first. There needs to be more concrete data before assuming andromedas reception is why future games are put on hold, as it's really just speculation and rumors at this point. I definitely can see them cutting down Montreal because of how green and inexperienced they are, moving them around can potentially get them more experience from other projects.

There were no layoffs from what my nephew is telling me right now. People were given new assignments. Whether they take it or not, is up to them. Well done Kotaku. Proving that speculation and crappy reporting does more to generate revenue than actually stating hard facts.