Kotaku: The Story Behind ME:A's Troubled Five-Year Development

Eh, it's Kotaku.

I don't think there is a romantic outfit

They have said there is going to be one we just don't have it yet.

For that to happen we need to hope that EA will release greater or at least comparable staff, time and funding to the project.  Given the reception of ME:A and EA's reputation as being the Cthulhu of computer game franchises, I really don't know...  I think this is all going to boil down to DLC sales, they will probably release a good DLC to test the water and then make a decision on the franchise going forward. 

So romantic

Not really much new here, but more or less what was expected in the end.

I always stop reading articles that seem to proclaim how everyone feels about a product. It is a subtle difference, but if the article states that "internet opinion" instead of "everyone" I might have a higher opinion of it especially after the last article on Kotaku about Mass Effect: Andromeda.

My concern, which does dovetail into your point, is EA will sink all of their efforts into Star Wars IPs.  This will leave BioWare strapped for resources.  In a perverse way, every game EA releases competes with another game they release in the same time period...  So having these studios churning product doesn't really produce the margins EA expects on investments.

The fact EA has Married itself to Frostbite is also an issue.  It's like having an auto manufacture owning a rubber tree orchard.  Just because the products are dependent on one another doesn't mean you should be in both businesses.

Is it inherently unworkable?  I dunno, maybe at today's tech level and with the current development standards it might be.  Who knows what the future will bring though.

Oh that is definitly happening, they have two active Star Wars products right now, three more in the works, and an exclusive license with Disney.

That is going to be their bread and butter for a while. Frostbite is going to get easier to code with as time goes on, the real question is how does this affect Mass Effect?

Putting the game on ice for a while is not the worst idea in the world, and considering how backed up BioWare is with Dylan and Dragon Age 4, it was likely going to be a consequence of this anyway. The real problem is the loss of Montreal as a major studio; keeping it as support is good but it limits what BioWare can work on. 

Maybe thats for the best? One of the takeaways from all of this is that BioWare seems to have grown too big, too fast, and didn't have the right manpower or resources to really compensate for it.

That's a very bold statement, since storywise I consider Obsidian to be the best in that department. Where Bioware usually shines as opposed to other companies is the creation of memorable companions. Usually, since I feel as if they lost that skillset with Andromeda. While not outright bad, the companions in this game don't rise up to usual Bioware quality.

I agree. I love this stuff. I just wish they had better solutions than the ones that went into the game. Andromeda is good (actually pretty good after 1.05), but it doesn't take away from the fact that leadership couldn't grasp the scope (if this is true, it's f***ing Kotaku) then their plan B was implemented way too late and I'm sure a lot of great developers that could've shined at BioWare are now working elsewhere. It's so disappointing. Stupid. Just plain stupid. 

I know, I'm sounding like some sort of armchair coach, but really... BioWare needs to invest in common sense before they invest anymore into the company. They've lost their sight and OH MAKER... here comes YouTube for round 2. Let's kick this dead horse even more.