Anthem - EA’s next PR disaster after BF 5

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
Lucas Silva #4903141 said:
It's ogre
Click to expand...
Bioware has been trying to cut costs everywhere they can over the past few years, and as I said in my video COVID has ben a Godsend for companies like them. They can gloss over the fact that they haven't done much and then when they get backlash their response is invariably, "But guys COVID!" GGG did this with Path of Exile's Harvest league where they had the sharpest drop in player retention in the first month of the league since Synthesis and they tried to gloss over that the most basic things are still borked as they "work on Path of Exile 2", and Bioware is doing the same thing with Anthem. But Bioware tries to get away from the fact that their online games gave not been doing well for a bit. If you look at SWTOR they merged servers and still have issues. When EA games launched on Steam Bioware actually artificially throttled connections with a queue, and said "If you want to bypass this queue give us $15.00 a month!" Thankfully it didn't go anywhere, but they recently (over the past eight months) decided that unless you are giving them a monthly subscription, you can't put in any type of customer support ticket, you have to use their forums that no one uses to get "help". So if you have your account hacked? Sucks to be you. Oh, you spent hundreds of dollars on cosmetics? Thanks for the money!

I feel confident in saying that at least half the Anthem team is gone. They were cut as excess fat because Bioware is strapped for cash right now. The rest got shuffled off to their next Mass Effect game that is pretty much going to fail, and the only hope they have no is Dragon Age, but that could also be a failure going by their track record with the past few games.
 
A sub-par release with a lot of promises of future content (which doesn't happen) is occuring in too many AAA games lately. This doesn't bode well for the next Dragon Age game. Personally, I blame the upper management; I read plenty of stories about how the higher ups kept changing the scope and overall gameplay mid-development. Bioware has a horrible crunch culture to boot.
 
There's been rumors that Anita Sarkeesian was involved with Anthem like she was with Dishonored 2. Is that true?
 
RomanesEuntDomus said:
The name "Bioware" still has some minor appeal and selling power to the mainstream market. Bioware will be dismantled like all the others, if not the name, then the people working there. I bet you won't find many people that have worked there for more than 5 years, the vast majority most likely have worked there for a significantly shorter time.
Click to expand...

How at this point?

Like, seriously, it’s 2021. Explain to me how BioWare has any market appeal in the mainstream.

An entire generation of gamers have come and gone since the last time BioWare genuinely made a good game that wasn’t marred by controversy. It’s been over a fucking decade at this point, not even counting the state of affairs by the time their next game comes out in 2023 (?). The pedigree behind the name BioWare doesn’t mean shit to anyone under 30 at this point.

Probably the most prolific example of get woke go broke I’ve seen in the games industry. How anyone has any faith in a dragons age game or mass effect is absolutely beyond me - none of the people that made those games that you love even work for the company at this point
 
Last edited:
cantankerous jackalope said:
How at this point?

Like, seriously, it’s 2021. Explain to me how BioWare has any market appeal in the mainstream.

An entire generation of gamers have come and gone since the last time BioWare genuinely made a good game that wasn’t marred by controversy. It’s been over a fucking decade at this point, not even counting the state of affairs by the time their next game comes out in 2023 (?). The pedigree behind the name BioWare doesn’t mean shit to anyone under 30 at this point.

Probably the most prolific example of get woke go broke I’ve seen in the games industry. How anyone has any faith in a dragons age game or mass effect is absolutely beyond me - none of the people that made those games that you love even work for the company at this point
Click to expand...
I think you underestimate the consoomer portion of the base.

I still have people unironically liking Andromeda and Inquisition in my friend circle. You're right that Bioware lost a lot of their formerly ardent supporters, but there's just this lingering goodwill left, usually by people whom I deem to have extremely bad taste.
 
Snowflake Buster said:
There's been rumors that Anita Sarkeesian was involved with Anthem like she was with Dishonored 2. Is that true?
Click to expand...
They brought her in at some point to do one of her feminism seminars and apparently a number of employees complained about it because she's poison to an already overworked, probably divided team. I don't think it was an official consultation.
 
BioWare is as good as dead. I'd be surprised if they even release both Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect Whatever. They're a fucking sad husk of what they once were.

I just don't see a good outcome for them and I wouldn't be surprised to see EA just shut them down like Westwood and Origin within this decade.
 
Tor Lugosi said:
r/AnthemTheGame is far more subdued over this than I figured it would be. Attitude there seems to mostly be "Yeah, I expected this."

I was hoping for some salt.
Click to expand...
Here's some salt for you from an SJW I've been watching having a meltdown on Twitter awhile ago:
Anthem_twittersalt1.png Anthem_twittersalt2.png
 
cantankerous jackalope said:
The pedigree behind the name BioWare doesn’t mean shit to anyone under 30 at this point.
Click to expand...
1) I would set that age bar lower to like 25 or something. There's also some "second hand" appeal to those that only know it by name and know that it has a good reputation amongst some older gamers. Even those that hate anything past Mass Effect 1 agree that Bioware was one of the great game devs of RPGs in the past. Such a reputation has a lot of mileage, combined with a few other aspects, that prolongs Biowares death rattle.
2) The age thing isn't really an issue, as long as it has a really good reputation with parts of that exact crowd.
cantankerous jackalope said:
Probably the most prolific example of get woke go broke I’ve seen in the games industry. How anyone has any faith in a dragons age game or mass effect is absolutely beyond me
Click to expand...
Bioware is EA's woke poster boy person, keeping it around and milking the last few drops of goodwill, decent reputation and market value out of them is the reason why it's still around. In contrast to, say, Bullfrog, EA can avoid LGBT shitstorms by keeping Bioware around while there's still a bit of money to be made with their name.

I can't tell you either why anyone would still feel even the smallest amount of hype when it comes to ME or DA, but those people are still around. There's people who loved Andromeda for whatever stupid reason and obsess over the Dragon Age games to a ludicrous degree.
Bioware fans are called BioDrones for a reason and the kind of shit and abuse they took from that company in the past without even flinching shows us just how much they can take. Accepting a mediocre game as the second coming of Christ is a small thing compared to some of the shit that Bioware pulled in the past. @Catastrophe-TM provded a nice example of such a BioDrone in action.
The absolute highlight must have been hiding the unsubscribe button on their SWTOR website and banning anyone from their forums, who posted ways to circumferent that issue and unsub anyway.

cantankerous jackalope said:
none of the people that made those games that you love even work for the company at this point
Click to expand...
Games that I love?
Dude, I have played exactly one Bioware game in my entire life and that was Baldur's Gate 2... and since I absolutely loathe DnD game mechanics, I played it for 2 hours and that's it.
Also, the fact that Bioware goes through new designers like a fat mexican with lactose intolerance goes through toilet paper doesn't matter to those that still obsess over ME and DA.
 
Last edited:
cantankerous jackalope said:
How at this point?

Like, seriously, it’s 2021. Explain to me how BioWare has any market appeal in the mainstream.

An entire generation of gamers have come and gone since the last time BioWare genuinely made a good game that wasn’t marred by controversy. It’s been over a fucking decade at this point, not even counting the state of affairs by the time their next game comes out in 2023 (?). The pedigree behind the name BioWare doesn’t mean shit to anyone under 30 at this point.

Probably the most prolific example of get woke go broke I’ve seen in the games industry. How anyone has any faith in a dragons age game or mass effect is absolutely beyond me - none of the people that made those games that you love even work for the company at this point
Click to expand...
They might not be shut down yet because Star Wars: The Old Republic is still profitable, apparently.

It would also look really bad for EA just to can BioWare, but I mean, does EA even care at this point?
 
Heather Mason said:
Was it Gaymergate's fault that Anthem was boring? Did sexist dudebro frat guys bully Bioware into not working on their game? Did I miss something?
Click to expand...
Of course. Gamergators are well known for having such toxic beliefs as "a game should be fun" and "a company should not nickel-and-dime their loyal fanbase for short term gains".
Their unreasonable ideas of being entitled to a decent game, just cause they pay for it, is what made this game fail. They should have been good people and just shell out copious amounts of money to Bioware out of grattitude that Bioware even bothered making a game in the first place - and any good person and fan should gladly pay whatever Bioware demands and expect nothing in return. Everything else would just be bigotry.

On a sidenote, I'll forever be sad to not save the posts I once found on the Bioware forums in regards to SWTOR, where a Biodrone asked people not to give up on SWTOR and to stick with it and stay subscribed to it, so it can use that money to grow and improve to become the title everyone wants it to be, so that future players have the benefit of receiving a better game.
It was a heartfelt appeal to the fans to not abondon the game and to help Bioware create a bright future for the game and its community. And then it ended with announcing that the guy had no intention of staying subscribed himself, cause the game wasn't fun to him and that he'd come back in a few months when the gameplay is fixed and content has been added.
:story:

Given how closely monitored the forums were at the time, it's utterly impossible that this was a troll, mind you.
 
Phony Negro said:
They might not be shut down yet because Star Wars: The Old Republic is still profitable, apparently.

It would also look really bad for EA just to can BioWare, but I mean, does EA even care at this point?
Click to expand...
Star Wars: The Old Republic has found its niche in an otherwise oversaturated market and has a loyal fanbase. If EA decides to shut down Bioware, the'll most likely keep Bioware Austin (the devs of SW: TOR) and just rename them.
IMHO, EA couldn't care less about canning Bioware at some point in the future, specially after the closure of so many other once successful Game Dev studios.
Again IMHO, this decision point could come after Dragon Age 4 and the Mass Effect remastered edition are released. If one or both of these games don't meet EA's financial expectations, Bioware most likely will get shitcanned.
 
RomanesEuntDomus said:
What gets me to this day:
You play as a guy in an Ironman suit with crazy weapons and you can fly around... and it still looks so fucking boring.
Being able to zip through a jungle in a flying hightech super armor should be so fucking mind-blowingly cool that everything else becomes a bonus, yet it's all so bland and unappealing.
Click to expand...

because you're judging a game based on the first few hours, and a normalfag AAA game at that, which has an even worse dumbed down entry to cast a wide a possible net.
it does get better, but either no one wants to play that far (story and characters don't help) and if they blow their load too soon it would overwhelm the poor casuals and at worst become boring to soon. damned if you do damned if you don't.

Wilhelm Bittrich said:
Star Wars: The Old Republic has found its niche in an otherwise oversaturated market and has a loyal fanbase. If EA decides to shut down Bioware, the'll most likely keep Bioware Austin (the devs of SW: TOR) and just rename them.
IMHO, EA couldn't care less about canning Bioware at some point in the future, specially after the closure of so many other once successful Game Dev studios.
Again IMHO, this decision point could come after Dragon Age 4 and the Mass Effect remastered edition are released. If one or both of these games don't meet EA's financial expectations, Bioware most likely will get shitcanned.
Click to expand...

don't forget DA4 is supposed to be another live service game, after they just showed everyone what that means coming from bioware.
highly doubt they'll get shitcanned tho, they coasted by this far and even dice is still around. they'll probably trim the studio down to it's bare bones to keep the name and avoid the PR backlash. too many retards still believe in the name only.
 
Phony Negro said:
They might not be shut down yet because Star Wars: The Old Republic is still profitable, apparently.

It would also look really bad for EA just to can BioWare, but I mean, does EA even care at this point?
Click to expand...

All three Dead Space games were profitable. Didn't stop EA from putting two in the back of Visceral studio's head.
 
Yeah, I don't think the BioWare brand holds any special meaning to the majority of people anymore. The last game they made that was (mostly) universally loved was Dragon Age: Origins in 2009, almost 12 years ago now. Which, not coincidentally, was the last game they completed before EA bought them. After that was Mass Effect 2, which while not hated also wasn't nearly as well received as the first Mass Effect. Everything after that has, at best, had a split audience reaction to it, and nothing that's been groundbreaking or memorable (at least for the right reasons, anyway).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom