Mike Gamble is now Project Director at BioWare - What could he be in charge of?

... and Dice is yet another subsidiary company of EA.  Shortly before Andromeda released, EA reorganized their management structure and I remember people here being concerned about what those changes eventually meant for Bioware.  A year before Bioware Montreal was shut down (six months before Andromeda released), EA also applied to the Quebec government for tax incentives that involved expanding the staff of EA Motive by 500 people.  When Bioware Montreal was shut down, a number of people were moved to EA Motive... fulfilling the deadline to increase EA Motive's staff per their arrangement with the Quebec government.  This is a clear indication that the shut down of Bioware Montreal may have been planned by EA long before Andromeda even released.  The original anticipation was probably that Andromeda would release six months before it did (i.e. Bioware did get EA to push back the release by that amount of time).  Had Andromeda released on schedule, that would have left a year for Bioware Montreal to complete DLC for the game.  However, in addition to Andromeda releasing six months later than schedules, it required six months to patch the game (which Bioware Montreal fulfilled)... meaning they likely simply ran out of time and we unable to complete DLC for the game prior to the deadline for the division to be rolled into EA Motive. There may have been some Bioware Montreal people also moved into Dice to facilitate the completion of Battlefront 2.  It's believable because  EA does move staff around among its various corporate subsidiaries.

Some people want to reduce it to just that "Andromeda was so hated...blah, blah, blah" but the business world is seldom that simple.  Andromeda scored as an average game in an environment where AAA games in general were scoring lower than they had in the past.  Games that have scored much lower have come back with successful sequels.  I agree with sjsharp2010 in believing that an ME:A2 is Biowares best way forward.  Contrary to Hrulj's ridiculous post, it has nothing to do with my opinions on Hitler (He was insane and I hate him as much as anyone) nor do I have any desire to kill myself.  I enjoy a particular game.... That's not a crime.

I have absolutely no issue with them producing a ME:A sequel with a different tone than the original ME:A.  ME2's tone was different than ME1's and ME3's tone was different than either ME1's or ME2's.  Bioware generally does make their sequels different than their prequels in many respects.  I think they'll probably continue with that sort of philosophy.

Some people want less all-consuming threats and others want more all-consuming threats.  I'm on the fence about that one.

Re: Montreal. This isn't much more than speculation. While there may be a bit more to the story, it hardly seems like a coincidence the studio was shut down after MEA performed so poorly. And it did perform poorly for a AAA game. 7/10 is average the way gaming journalists do reviews and the consumer reaction was very negative. I get that MEA has its fans, but you're in the minority outside of the hardcore ME fanbase. Hrulj could have been more delicate, put his point is on the mark.

Personally, I want for the franchise to forget Andromeda exists and go back to the Milky Way with a time skip after ME3. I understand though this would piss off a large section of the fanbase just as the announcement of MEA did (I was on the old official boards at the time). Risky for a franchise and developer which needs to hit a home run. MEA2 is even more risky. That's why I've come to believe linking the MW and Andromeda together is probably the best (certainly most inclusive) way to go. All of the fanbase would get at least part of what it wants and the average gamer will get behind it if it's well done.