Mass Effect SP DLC (timing and speculation) thread

Except for the fact ME:A keeps getting patches and free minor DLC's.

Oh and everyone keeps talking about how dead ME:A is. So on both of those points, you are very wrong.

Indeed. MEA is probably the most active, well-supported 'dead' game I've ever seen. 

Look, can you please leave me some tinfoil to cook my chicken? This shit is expensive. Like, seriously, how many hats do you need? You have one head....

I think he's been sitting behind the screen too long. He's gone daffy.

Wait, you are postulating that they are continuing with patches for Andromeda, a third-person one-player RPG with AI companions that people bought because of Bioware's history of great RPG's, stories, and companion relationships, because if they don't then people won't buy their online, friends-required (basically), "write your own story", no companion, no romance Destiny/Division "clone"?

Actually, if they ARE stringing us along...it would have little to do with Anthem at ALL.  It would more likely be linked to the IP itself, as they have a very LARGE number of goods on the Bioware Store directly linked to Mass Effect.  And, as Dragon Age items are sitting right next to Mass Effect, the negativity could splash over to THAT particular IP causing it to suffer.  Anthem, as it is, is a separate property that is a relative unknown from a well known developer.  In fact, aside from the devs name recognition, they are doing little to connect this to Dragon Age and Mass Effect, highly suggesting that this property will only appeal to fringes of the previous IPs fanbase.  As such, they would be more likely to promote it in an individual fashion with only tertiary links to the other Bioware IPs in order to appeal to fans of third person shooters (Gears of Wars as an example), mech combat (such as Titanfall fans), and MMO shooters (such as Destiny).  Until substantial information comes out as to the actual roleplaying aspects (if there are any) of Anthem, linking them to Mass Effect would be counter productive in way of appeal and potential sales.

The scale of the patches strongly suggests continued support in a major fashion of the Mass Effect IP, as going back to add (or restore as it may be) a M/M romance was most likely a time consuming task aimed at placating the fanbase.  Not quite the level of the EC, but it was an effort...which, if the franchise was to be abandoned, aka 'dead' would have be a waste of resources.  It would have been much, MUCH easier to simply do a few bug fixes, and taper off support by the end of June, maybe July with minimal fixes are structured intervals until years end.  Thats business and economics...which operates in its own sphere far above marketing.  If a CEO decides to end support, you'll see it.  NO business is going to put time and money into a project that they consider 'dead'.  PR would have prepared a response to the situation, THANKING the fans for THEIR support as they admirably strive forward during a time when critical response to their title was less than they had hoped for while moving forward.  

Simply put?  BS and then blame the critics for how things went wrong.  SCAPEGOATING someone.  Followed by dropping the product.  NOT by continuing to patch the thing and still engaging the fans.  Whilst Walters and Flynn seemed to have abandoned us, Fraiser and Gamble have still been answering questions and fixing problems.  

So why would they add the male Jaal/Ryder romance in if it were dead?  From a business standpoint, it doesn't make sense.  Trust me, with a good marketing department, serious PR buzz, and a flood of Anthem information, they could BURY Mass Effect so deep that all but the most diehard fans would still care/remember what it even WAS.  A deluge of Anthem could wipeout anything related to the title leaving it to wither and die on the vine while everyone was bedazzled by the Next Big Thing.  It makes NO SENSE to patch the game if they are putting it out to pasture unless they have future plans for the title.  If a decision has been made on the product, and knowing how business works, I'd say they HAVE made a decision, then we'd see the trickle down by now.  I DON'T think we'll see much from Kotaku (they seem to have a SERIOUS bias), or IGN (serious BIAS...on the OPPOSITE side of the equation)...but we'll see something as to their plans in a month or two.  If they ARE ending support, they'll say so.  Because they'll USE it to ramp up to the next product.



 That is how marketing works.  Use the negative, spin it, and springboard to the next story.  Andromeda is still a tale being told.

You honestly think a team with this level of incompetence added the Jaal romance from scratch? More likely it didn't make the final cut, so they polished it off and included it in a patch to give you the illusion that they're putting more than a weekends of worth into the patches.

two problems.

1. Given biowares track record they usually announce dlc a week or two before it's coming out. So by your estimate we will not get an announcement of dlc until late July/ August.
2. They are probably too busy working on said dlc to really be excited.

Besides given the reaction to the game they may push back the typical dlc push by a month or two. Based on your projections I'm not going to worry till at least October.

if ea were smart they'd call all their studio heads into a room and not.let them leave till they hash out a FV 4

if so it'd be the third such message i believe bioware has put in their work.

Nope, while they never officially reveal DLC until right before release, they normally tease and strongly hint at upcoming story DLC which has not happened yet with MEA.

Yes, Jaws of Hakkon for DAI wasnt announced until like the day before release, but Bioware had already pretty much confirmed that story DLC was incoming WAY before that. With MEA and 3 months after launch, Bioware has been 100% silent regarding any future SP content for MEA.

I repeat, Bioware has always confirmed that sp dlc is incoming. They never say when or give details until a few days before launch, but they do confirm that sp dlc is being worked on and would say something like, "we are working hard at post release content....stay tuned."

For MEA.....well.....that hasn't happened.

Why do you even want DLC, when most likely are going to hate on it. MEA animations were awful, with an unlikely fix ever, the number one complaint for this game (people acting like it is the end of the world, because of it) and it is going to plague the DLC, which will give people an excuse to hate on it more. However, if they take their time to actually make a decent story, that may offset the awful animations, maybe, just maybe people will be like "you should have done this for the original game to be any good." They are just no pleasing the people who KNOW about MEA, those who have played it may be a different story. Anyways, ME A is not the game I wanted, but it is the one I got, still better than the flood of MOBAS and online only locked games.