No More Patches/Content for MEA (Single Player)

Good, the game was an absolute disgrace.

Very disappointing, but not unexpected. I wish EA had backed Edmonton to save some face with a quality DLC but it was probably a bit much to expect them to take the gamble.

It just makes me shake my head how many people are actually happy that there is no DLC. It's like they can't handle others finding enjoyment in something they dislike. That is next level sad.

Genuinely disappointing but the writing's been on the wall for a while for people not to busy yelling "FAKE NEWS!" at stuff they didn't wanna hear.

I'm genuinely concerned for what this augers for Bioware's longterm future as a primarily single-player RPG dev though.

Oh well, at least we'll have Minrathous.

I'll never forgive BioWare management for killing my favorite franchise like this. Gave it to a rookie squad who clearly wasn't up for the task. Meanwhile The Division's year two is looking pretty good and Destiny 2 is going to fly off the shelves, so unless Anthem has world-shattering gameplay it's going to be dead in the water on launch. It'll be the Windows Phone of the Destivision genre (Anthevisiony? I'll work on this.)

Might as well label this comic 2018.

static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/2610/2161667-zFrTB.jpg

Damn this hurt. I felt like a truck hit me at top speed. I always hoped for at least at minimum a single DLC on the Quarians but I guess we will have to buy a novel to find it out. I love the Quarians so I think I'll end up buying that novel but I'm very disappointed because that's prime gaming material went to waste. No disrespect to the author of the novel intended, I mean I would have preferred the issue to be solved in the game. That's it.

I'm not sure how to feel on this. MEA is the first game from quite a while that have not received any DLC. Let's not lie to ourselves this is a crystal clear signal that it didn't sell well albeit many of us (me included) believed the situation was better than this. Clearly I was wrong but sadly can't understand why some people overjoyed over them being right about this. Failing of a franchise isn't something I definitly would want to be right about.

So what will the future holds for ME? Hudson and Gamble made it quite clear that it is their intention to return back to the franchise after all it is Casey's baby. I believe EA hasn't lost hope on ME as it is still a great franchise to make profit from them, it should be given to the experienced team though to succeed. Sadly this MEA controversy and the shutting down of Montreal studio means logically that we are not going to see a new ME for a long time as both Edmonton and Austin have probably their hands full on other projects. Maybe after DA4 completed its developing cycle they'll start work on the next ME game. I think though this pause is necessary and important to re-evaluate the franchise and where they should go from there to move on.

A couple of personal considerations as a fan which would make me happy for ME:


- This is a prime opportunity to release a HD remaster of the old trilogy as it would create some easy profit for the company and would rekindle the passion of its fans for the franchise. It will also serve to buy additional time to plan the next proper ME game.

- When a new ME is released they should be considering if continuing in Andromeda is a viable decision. I would love if they continue Ryder story but I love this franchise as a whole more than the single story in itself, so if they feel that forgetting about Andromeda to start anew in the MW is better for the franchise I wouldn't object this. Ultimately they should tell the story they want to tell and make it good.

- If they decide to return to the MW a couple of considerations are necessary. A sequel of Shepard trilogy is unlikely because they don't want to canonize any ending although I personally wouldn't oppose it. Clearly I'd favor Destroy but if they can create a good story from others ending then I would be ok with. Still this is very unlikely.

-The other alternative is doing a prequel or midquel of the events happening on MET. This though would create a totally different game with a smaller and personal story which is not about saving the world. I'm not opposed to it but I don't see BW doing something like that. It will be difficult to surpass the deeds of Shepard and would need to be a quite enjoyable experience but in all honesty I'm quite fed up with Reapers and indoctrination so it should really be able to offer a fresh perspective on the old MW to be really engaging. Same goes for a prequel, shooting Turians all the day would become quite annoying considering I know them and like them quite a lot.

- The last option is a reboot of the franchise. I'm not opposed to this in principle but we have to understand what we intend with reboot here. If reboot means changing the established races lore, appearance and everything that made us love them in the first place then I would advise them to make a new sci-fi franchise and be done with it. Hard-reboots would absolutely destroy the franchise for me. I would have a game called ME with nothing on it reminding of what I appreciated of this franchise. I'm absolutely open for a soft-reboot which means keep the basic skeleton of the races, lore and appearance but modify completely the story, context and politics of it to tell us a different story in the MW galaxy. It's quite tricky but can be done.

We shall see what the future holds for ME.

Okay, Bioware already had their fun. Can we please go back to the milky way now?

I pretty much called this exact situation would happen when the batarian dropped. However, I assumed DLC was planned but then cancelled and they were repurposing assets in MP, but this part of their announcement suggests otherwise:



So am I reading this right? They planned to expand the story through multiplayer FROM THE START? Even if MEA was a critical/financial success there would have been no single player DLC?

What if the Quarian ark stuff in the game is just a primer for a multiplayer mission?

That would be good reason to hate MP's inclusion in BioWare games. 

So.. this is it, isnt it..


At least, we have as answer.. at last.

RIP Bioware and don't expect me to buy your @!%*@ Destiny 2.5 for whom ME was sacrificied.