In defense of Frostbite

That very same story was said when Apex Legends came out using Source Engine, which at the time made sense, since Titanfall games were also built on the Source Engine and Apex Legends was likely in development before Respawn was bought by EA. If Jedi Fallen Order were built on the Source Engine as well, I would give this argument much credit, since it would be an extension of the same story made for Apex Legends. But we are talking about a third engine here, Unreal, and that spices up the whole story I reckon.

Your argument is something to be considered, but I am somewhat skeptical still. I think the move to Unreal might have taken place before Respawn got purchased, indeed, but it would be absurd that Respawn was until then oblivious to the fact they would be shortly after closing a 455-million-dollar deal with a publisher that demands their own Frostbite engine only to be used. I think Respawn would be at least considering the move to Frostbite if they had to adapt to EA standards (but perhaps they didn't have to?).

More grist for the mill. In a 2015 interview, Patrick Soderlund DENIED making Frostbite a mandate. Quote, "It was discussed whether we should just mandate everyone to use Frostbite, and I was not in the same position I am today, this was 10 years ago, but I just said, 'Listen, that won't work.'"

www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-07-06-soderlund

On the other hand, FIFA 18 switched to Frostbite, after Soderlund's departure. Now why would they go through the immense re-engineering cost to do that, if there weren't some kind of pressure/incentive? What possible advantage could a sports game get from Frostbite technology, apart from the consolidation of support cost and tooling?

There are a lot of specifics surrounding their reason to go Frostbite instead of Unreal that we have no clue whatsoever about. Still not stopping any a-hole clickbaiter to post a garbage view on on YT about it though. 

If you have any actual facts in the matter and details surrounding whatever actual agreement or contract BioWare/EA signed, sealed regarding Frostbite. By all means do share.

How come developer feedback on the engine doesn't factor into this? Soderland deciding whether or not he wants to mandate the engine has no bearing when the devs are ultimately the ones who have to put up with it. We keep making this about who's to blame with regards to WHY BioWare is using the engine, when we already know BioWare signed onto it. The question should be whether its feasible for the studio to continue working on the engine; to which I say no.

If Mass Effect ends up being BioWares next project - after Dragon Age - than that'll be test to see if they choose to use another engine.

Their problem is shitty leadership. If clearly Frostbite was such a problem and BioWare was faffing about with Beyond Anthem without a clue about its direction anyway, any semi-decent quasi-professional leader would have picked a bunch of software engineers and tasked them with nothing else but familiarizing themselves with Frostbite and building tools to facilitate its use in current and future projects. That would have created a solid foundation to build on.

Get some good leadership first. That will solve most other problems.

Problem is Bioware trained Frostbite programmers to work on Anthem but EA intervened and moved them to FIFA. How is "good leadership" going to help with corporate meddling?