People need to stop blaming fans for this mess

I agree, can't blame the fans cause it's something every game gets, there's always people out to get it down. Bioware isn't this special snowflake that gets more hate than most, they're much smaller than the rest of the triple A industry to begin with so they have it pretty easy with its fans.

The blame goes squarely on EA/Bioware. These people can't even give DLC for those who did like it so it's even better seeing people blame the fans. It's like they(bioware) can do no wrong...

Doesn't change the fact that it's a sure win for the company. Easier to produce than SP content and a sufficient amount of feeble minded forking out for microtransactions. Have you looked at what they charge? Up to 99 for a so called best deal.

People seem shocked by that ultimately?

A small indie company with a lot of money can support their game while a company with corporate masters are told what to do.

In all honesty...I lay the blame to everyone on this debacle. I lay the blame on EA for acting like a business first (which is expected) in the face of going for dollars. I lay the blame on BioWare for fucking up royally with a new studio (which is expected) on the management department that likely contributed to a bad dev cycle, and I lay blame to most of the gaming community for acting entitled (which is expected)  to the whole ordeal, not only in terms of the witch hunt that started against BioWare because of socio-political reasons, but the current state of the game being left in the cold.

This is why getting too invested in fandoms is kind of silly to me. Frankly, everyone involved, from the corporate to the fans side, acted as they normally do, only pumped to 11 this time around because people are looking at angles to screw with folks. BioWare screwing up the most on their end with what turned out to be a dud compared to the rest of the work only exacerbated things further. 

Not the end of the world at all, and folks saying the sky is falling is a feeling of schadenfreude to me. So let it go, let's move on to Anthem and see what they do next.

Each and everyone of us is accountable to him/herself for what we think, say or do. That goes without saying. And it never stopped being true that treating others as you wish to be treated oneself is a good easy check.

For what?

The only thing that was an absolute no go was threatening and stalking developers. Everything else is fair game.

Don't like it, tough.

They may have played the bugged demo. 10 hours of utter disaster are more than enough to teach a lesson. And again, the ball is in EAs field, since they were the ones pushing Origin Access with that peculiar strategy.

Also, mindless hate is one of the hallmarks of every Bioware game since DA2. It didn't hurt the previous titles, so why should this one be the one out? They created a bland soup of a title, but I don't think that even that was enough to break it's neck. People still bought it. Wether it was a real financial success, given all the resources that went into development, is not for us to know. But it hasn't been a trainwreck either. It seems that the business decisions at the foundations of abandoning SP run deeper than sales numbers alone. And they certainly run deeper than simple hatred.

There was a bit exaggeration in the reaction.

I also blame the todays "everything that gets below 8/10 is automatically shit" sentiments in gaming...

When the hell did this arbitrarily bar even raise up. Now its like games have only 3 categories, "excellent", "good" and shit. Theres more layers than that!

Quoted for truth. Had BioWare released one amazing game, none of this would have happened.

Unfortunately, it appears as though EA has more or less destroyed a once promising franchise. MEA has achieved it's current level of success based strictly on ii's own merit. I think the game would have been more successful had it not been a ME title at all. I had really hoped that this game would be much better than what was released, but that obviously did not happen, for whatever reason. Personally, I am hoping that Casey Hudson has returned to try and salvage this franchise. I truly wish things would have turned out different, but it is what it is.

Perhaps, but I would not be surprised if Casey had even some small interest in preserving a title he worked on for as long as he did. As it is, the results are what they are.

Nah, there's definitely plenty of blame to go around, fans included.

If everyone from the MRA-est MRA to the SJW-est SJW is gonna pitch hissy fits and throw internet tantrums, do you really not expect someone in the development chain to be like "whelp, fuck it, they hate it, so might as well move on."

Like come on, people.

That's not how large companies like EA operate, they ain't sitting round watching you tube videos or lurking in fan forums to inform their strategies.  They simply pull up the metadata from Origin.   I probably contributed to ME:A never getting DLC or a sequel, but not with any of my posts, it would have been by not completing the game and uninstalling months ago.