Mass Effect Andromeda in third place for NPD March 2017 Report

I'm well aware of the usual sales pattern (and hence can't see Andromeda ever beating Wildlands' numbers), but Mass Effect being a 'much stronger' brand is very debatable IMO. Not in any way that translates to much stronger sales, at the very least. They're different genres, for one, with shooters traditionally selling much better than RPGs (Skyrim being an exception rather than the rule). With its current numbers, Andromeda is still the second best-selling ME game behind ME3. Even if there was no controversy on launch and the Metacritic score (to which you attribute some excessive importance IMO) was around 90, I just can't see how it would have 'crushed' a game like Wildlands as you claim.

Yeah...it's why I say at some point EA's hand might have been involved in releasing Andromeda prematurely when clearly it wasn't ready at launch. But they did delay it to the very last second so that it could make it to their fiscal year commitments. EA stated they would have delayed the game if it needed it, but alot was riding on Andromeda to buff it's financial quarter among other aspects.

I don't have to tell you how slick EA had to be with wording things as well since you don't want stock holders to get nervous or to start pulling out money from your company if they feel you aren't going to meet your benchmark.....so idk...alot of folks are putting this on Bioware, as well as they should have since the game really should have been polished and ready to go, but i think the decision was that they knew folks would purchase this on day one (and also looked at the pre-order sales), and that they would do damage control with a patch.... 

Game is still a mixed bag for me, but i'am really liking the planet Kaedra? (spel)....it seems like the game is finally starting to take off a little bit ( at least i hope it is after 40 something hours.. )....at least here i'am enjoying the side missions and they seem a bit more interesting compared to Veold and Eos....

Considering BioWare and EA seem to have expected the game to sell over three million copies within the first few days, and it didn't even sell 1.3 million in the first week, that should give you an idea of where it ranges from "flop" to "success."

Again, I hardly believe this will be the end of the franchise. That being said, it's obvious the game is a financial disappointment at this point and BioWare is doing as much damage control as it can.

BioWare will use the patches as well as DLC to try and correct the course of the ship. However, you only have one time to ship. BioWare blew it, so we'll see where that puts BioWare going forward. Its new IP will release next year, and a new Star Wars game is rumored to be in the works in Austin. Edmonton will probably move to Dragon Age 4 after the new IP is released, so a lot of things are in motion at all of BioWare's studios.

In its opening week ME:A sold 960,000 copies on XB1 and PS4.

In its opening week ME3 sold 1.68 million on XB360 and PS4.

Substantial drop!