EA Boss Says Mass Effect: Andromeda Got Too Much Criticism, Franchise Could Return

For all we know there may have been a drop in players for MP since Bioware released that statement about the dlc and EA can't have that (steps in Patrick Soderlund). Even some of the most ardent defenders of ME:A were pretty pissed about the news.

You know, if people bother to read context clues...

What we have here is an acknowledgement of the games shortcomings, an argument against overblown criticism, and an attempt to pitch the game as is to people.

No to mention a hook for later...

Between the lines, it sounds like fustration on their end, because they know it failed. Yet I think they are taken aback by the reception being so damn venomous when it launched it kind of just deflated the whole project.

I'm going out on a limb here, but based on the evidence it's clear BioWare knew the game wasn't as good as previous titles, but the scrutinizing by the gaming community dissolved all hope for any current content as well, and we see here the sort of fustration of that revelation at play here.

Which is why I think down the line, a new Mass Effect game might remedy that. But it is definitly on the back burner.

I don't think they acknowledged the game's shortcomings at all.  The one thing about the bugs and animations is that it's given birth to this attitude that if the bugs and animations are fixed the game is great otherwise.  However, there were a lot of people who had issues with the core elements of the game.  I don't think I've ever mentioned animations once in my comments about this game.  He even says, come look at the game now it's great, but at it's core it's still the same game.

They've scapegoated animations & bugs for all the game's failings. 

There are a lot of games out there that get no further support to it, or no DLC and updates at all.

I said this earlier in another thread, but up until a decade ago such DLC or updates were still pipe dreams. We have become somewhat spoiled by that as we expect support to show "love" for a game or franchise, our appetites for more content is pretty insatiable at times.

In regards to the maybe line, I chalked that up to him talking to shareholders as well. The words he chose were specific, of course.

I agree that we've been spoiled with DLC over the years but when we've been tugged along with the possibility of DLC by Bioware, you kinda expect it.

Spoken like a true mob boss.

I have no idea how anyone can see anything bad in this interview. When BioWare announced that there would be no DLC for MEA, I was worried whether the franchise is dead. Since then Casey Hudson and Patrick Soderlund both have said that they want to return to ME at some point. That's all a Mass Effect fan can ask for right now - that they haven't given up on the series and want to come back with a better game. That is basically what Soderlund is saying with the last paragraph in the interview.

I also have no idea how anyone can come to the conclusion that anyone blames fans for the product. All he is saying is that in his opinion the game got too much flack - which a) is an opinion he can have and is one I agree with. Doesn't have anything to do with not acknowledging the problems a game and this one in particular has.

To me this interview sends an important message because 1) the franchise isn't dead and 2) you can be pretty sure that they'll be very serious (that's how I see him using "careful" in this) about the next game.

Except he did exactly that.  It's in the OP, fergawdsake:

"I usually don't do this, but this is one of those places where I feel like the game got criticised a little bit more than it deserved," Soderlund told GameReactor. "I think the game is actually a great game. Yes, we have to acknowledge the fact that there were some things that maybe we could have done better, absolutely, but as a whole, if you go in and you buy the game today with everything that's in it today, I believe that that's a game worth buying, personally."

A quick Google search turns up tonnes more examples. Not sure how much self-abasement would be enough for people.  Maybe if he set himself on fire in the middle of the show floor at E3?

In the meantime, certain gamers could learn to respond to bugs and bad animations (or slightly inaccurate interactions with Trans people) in a more constructive way than, say, "IHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHATEYOUIHOPEYOUANDYOURWHOLEFAMILYBURNSTODEATH". I guarantee you that otherwise talented developers are being scared away from the industry by this crap.  Certainly, they're a lot less likely to take any chances or do anything innovative or daring. 

In the meantime, I played this game from day one, logging almost 100 hours (most of them before the big patches), and did the vast majority of the sidequests.  I even VPN'd via South Korea to play early. Not one show stopper bug, not one bugged quest, never "fell" out of the map, combo's worked just fine. I saw exactly one bug, PeeBee leaning on the centre console in the main room of the Tempest backwards. Once. That's it. Not a perfect game, and it's not even close to one.  But anyone who refuses to admit that a lot of people dog-piled on this one just because they could (and because BioWare seems to take a disproportional amount of crap), and that it likely had a very negative effect on future plans for the series, just aren't being honest. 

you must be new here.. sarcasm.
I really liked Inquisition and with the DLC on it s a spectacular game.
And ofcourse it has flaws.

people havr been saying this for every bioware game since and including ME2 .

Considering the controversy regarding ME3's ending/s, it was inevitable that the next Mass Effect game would be put under the microscope to look for all of its flaws. Dragon Age: Inquisition had a better time of it because it was compared against Dragon Age II rather than Dragon Age: Origins (understandably so).


It could be argued that BioWare titles, at least insofar as the Mass Effect and even the Dragon Age franchises are concerned, have always received DLC of one kind or the other, regardless of reception, what fosters an expectation that the same will hold true for future titles (of those franchises at least). This expectation was, to my mind, reinforced by some of the unresolved plot threads, such as curing Ryder's mom, finding out who killed Jien Garson and why, and rescuing the Quarian Ark. You could make the case that some of these were meant to be addressed in a sequel, possibly, but not all of them. For instance, it wouldn't make sense for us to rescue the Quarians in a sequel two (at best) years from now when it's precisely what you've been doing throughout the game (the same could be argued about curing Ryder's mom, as the emotional weight of this would get lost outside of Andromeda). On the other hand, it makes sense not to explore the Primus' agenda right now as she's been clearly set up to be the next antagonist by the time we reach the end of the game. Had some of these plot threads been resolved within the confines of the narrative of Mass Effect: Andromeda I wouldn't even be asking for SP DLC.