How can one above average game sink an entire franchise?

And yet the 2nd Andromeda novel is supposed to release this summer and yet it doesn't have a release date yet. Hell, asside from Nexus Uprising, NOTHING has been said about ME: Annihilation.

The writing is on the wall. Whether you choose to read it and comprehend it is up to you.

Difference is that DA2 didnt have the same amount of hype and pressure for it to succeed like MEA did. So you cant really compare them. Also, DAI had the advantage up being the first "next gen" game that Bioware made for the Xbox One and PS4 so a lot of excitment came from that and no doubtly contributed to sales.

Finally, ME is a bigger brand than DA so more is expected from Mass Effect than Dragon Age.

DA2 was a big disappointment, but DAI did win a bunch of GOTY award and was pretty popular. I don't think MEA will sink the series, especially when the game was made by a side team, not the main ME team, there was also development hell they went through. As long as the next game is good, I think ME still has a chance. The problem with ME3 was basically a horrible ending then a follow up game that has a lot of issues.

To which I always respond like this. By all means, move on, but don't what the industry calls streamlining these days. Pay some attention to the ones being with you right from the start, and don't take your audience for babbling idiots that want games to be as simple as possible. They didn't add to the ME franchise, they rolled back on it. The only thing better than in previous titles is the combat, but that's not what many Bioware fans expect from that company. They expect story and character interaction. They expect to be a little bit anal about equipping companions to make them better suited for combat situations. Yet they abolished that for good, same as they did with DAII.

There are only two aspects I would say they handled better than in previous games. One's combat dynamics, the other one is not being forced into multiplayer to get the most out of your single player game. Everything else is a step back.

Which still doesn't make that a bad game, but a game that isn't on par with the latest Bioware titles.

It is?  I always assumed it was the other way around. 

Bethesda, much as I like them for their populated open worlds, never produced a real RPG in my opinion. As I keep saying, I play different games for different reasons. With Bethesda I hope for a nice open world to explore and for modders to take care of the weaknesses. With Bioware I'm hoping for story and for companions to love.

They're hardly the same.

What attributes would you say define an RPG as such and not say...an action game? So for example, we can agree then that DAO and KOTOR are pretty standard RPGs. But I would also consider Morrowind a standard RPG, just not within the same archetype.

In a world where Bubsy of all things gets a new game in 2017, I don't think any major franchise can really "die."

Time will tell... and only time will tell.

Oh YES I can. And Not More is excepted from Mass effect, when you look at the physical sales DAO sold 4,74 millions while ME 3 despite having a foundation of two previous game and being the closing chapter of the trilogy sold 4,54 millions physical copies. Where did you saw that mass effect has more pressure to sell more? One episode of dragon age sold more back in 2009.

And who cares about being the first next gen, the only point was "I am excited because its a new bioware game" barely anyone were speaking about the new gen tech on the forums before DAI was relased, it was about romance not being bi, story, who is the bad guy etc. Normal bioware discussion.