BioWare's Messaging of Anthem

What do you think of this hypothetical? The choice was between doing no next Mass Effect at all, or letting the B Team do it. Ignoring hindsight, which would you have preferred? This assumes the Anthem ship had already sailed and there was no chance of that team doing Mass Effect next.

I personally think this is what really happened. It was a tough choice, but better to try and give the IP a new start in a new galaxy than just go straight to shelving it indefinitely. As it happened, the gamble did not pay off and it got shelved anyway, but at the time, there was probably some non-zero chance belief the B team might have pulled it off.

If Bioware is trend chasing, what trend are they chasing?

I ask cause I find it interesting how many Assassins Creed fans are saying Ubisoft is trend chasing with Odyssey (Open world rpg, with dialog/romance options) you know....the very strength of Bioware but yet Bioware does not see it as a valuable trend so they go for the shared online shooter (Destiny....The Division etc...)


So I feel it is less about trend chasing and more about confidence. When you look at games like AC Odyssey, Witcher 3, Skyrim, Cyberpunk, Persona 5, Horizon and so on, the RPG industry/genre is moving at a pace that may be too intense for bioware. In 2003 Bioware was ahead of the game. In 2018 that game has surpassed Bioware. So Bioware looks to a more infant genre to see if they can make their mark on that.

Man...it really hurts that that statement feels so accurate. I had been wondering if Bioware was actually starting to feel intimidated by the current state of the RPG genre. Bioware has never been an "Open World" developer. I suspect that whole concept felt just too overwhelming for them at first. I suspect that might be partly why Anthem is happening. They are attempting to properly get a handle on the concept of a "open world" game before trying another RPG. Because god forbid we get an RPG that isn't Open World now. To be frank, I'm a bit sick of Open World games. I ate em up back in day, when they were these rare, special things like a TES game every 5 years. They felt special, grand, epic in scope. Now every tom dick and harry pumps out Open World games and they have, for me anyway, totally lost their luster in that sense of grand, epic scale. Also aside from Witcher 3 and Horizon (for me), Open world games tend to just totally be lackluster in terms of story and characters, which is the primary draw of a RPG to me. Open World games are now all like alike, just wander around aimlessly looking at trees while you cycle through pointless collection "quests".

Bioware's formula (outside of the party system) is no longer novelty. Many open world amd semi open world RPGs are coming out that are doing the Bioware formula better than Bioware. So they have 2 options, continue with the formula and get eaten up by games like Cyberpunk and Horizon 2 among a few....or go into territory that isnt as advanced as RPGs and try to lay their claim there?

While games like Destiny and The Division have succeeded somewhat in this new setting, it isnt as advanced and settled as the non-JRPG genre is. So in theory Anthem could be that game that truely claims this new genre the same way BG/NWN/KOTOR did 20 years ago.

The RPG market is really saturated with very little elbow room. To stand out, you REALLY have to bring your AAA game. Just look at what Skyrim, Breath of the Wild and Horizon did. Then compare that to what the inevitable Horizon 2 will bring and what Cyberpunk is bringing. Hell, even AC Odyssey is coming into the genre hard. Now compare that to the online open world RPG shooter? Destiny is good, but it doesnt have a true hold on the genre. The Division is good, but it doesnt have a full claim on the genre. However Anthem, with the Bioware style story telling and dialog choices could make a dent in the genre. It is a bull market.

Let's just be real, BioWare are getting their asses kicked.

Im not denying that on a personal basis, Bioware isnt relevant because as you just described, Bioware is very relevant to you amd many others.

What Im talking about is what Bioware/EA possibly sees, which is that Bioware is no longer that dominating and influential force in the non-JRPG market. Many other games and devs has caught up to and even surpassed Bioware.

Think of it like Halo. In the original Xbox days, Halo was seen as the industry leader and strong force within the console shooter/fps market. Fast forward to 2018 and Halo is no longer seen as that big bad wolf and industry leader/innovator as many other shooterr/FPS games have surpassed Halo in many ways.

In what way?
Their next game isn't out yet.

BioWare seems to be in the awkward position where they're games are not doing well in public perception, even if they're getting by on sales.  Dragon Age Inquisition is quite simply not on par with games like TW3 even if it sold very well (its launch in 2014 was extremely fortuitous).  Andromeda is in a similar spot.  Before that was ME3, its been a long time since a BioWare game has been considered an unambiguous success. 

there will always be naysayers of course, but I think we can point to DA:O and ME1/2 as unambiguous successes. 

Yep...come on, it makes perfect sense! (or not, maybe)