It’s been officially announced that EA has ‘pulled the plug’ on the single player campaign of Mass Effect Andromeda. This simply means, no more updates(DLC’s and Hotfixes) will be released for the single player side of the game. I guess we could play the blame game here, of who’s fault was it that lead up to this. Bioware, or reviewers.
Clearly, I put the blame on Bioware. If they had just put more effort (eg, fixing bugs) before the release, rather than after, I’m pretty sure the initial reviews of the game wouldn’t be as cynical as they are.
Plus I heard the company that made the game (Bioware Montreal), wasn’t even part of the series (as the original company that did, left quietly). And now this company has shut down.
Yet the game isn’t completely dead, as Multiplayer content (and its microtransactions) are still strong. There’s also comic books and novels (one to go over the never to be released Quarian DLC).
Still, this is quite sad (yet it’s also not a big surprise). I feel the great frustration of a lot of players who paid the $60, only to feel they got ripped off. I hope they at least got their money back. Yet there are also the people that bought it despite the negative reviews, and actually found it quite good in their opinion.
Even I, didn’t find the game that terrible (after they managed to fix a lot of the bugs). However, I’ll have to admit, I’ve already forgotten most of it. Unlike the series, there wasn’t any ‘bromance’ feeling of your teammates (like Garrus or Wrex, teammates that you feel always have your back).
Though I wonder just how long it’ll take until players start to get tired of ME:A’s multiplayer (to the point they’ll feel they’re getting milked by EA).
To close out this post, I refuse to say the game will never see the light of day (given a few years passing). I feel some other company might decide to take over, and finally give that Quarian Ark DLC we’ve been waiting for.
Then again, who knows?
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EDIT: Some big news has happened (heard from a few videos). Even though the SP campaign is dead, the franchise isn’t. Bioware and even EA have said they don’t want the series to end. They also said they’ve learned from their mistakes (in a way). EA goes on by saying the game was “over-criticized”. Nah, I doubt that. More like overhyped. Plus, they could had easily helped Bioware fund the game to make it better before launch. Instead, they did their ‘EA thing’ and told Bioware to rush the game out the door. Because making an early sale is more important to making sure this game meets the same signature standards as the series.
We probably won’t know until another 5-10 years have passed, of what they might be working on next (as they have other IPs to work on). Though EA claims that when another ME title comes, that they must make sure that they “bring it back in a really [relevant] way, and in a fresh, exciting place.”
I pray this doesn’t mean ‘Mass Effect Andromeda 2’. But, we shall see as the years go by.