Bioware failed to meet EAs sales target? (Update: yes)

Somewhat beloved story developer to many with games offering romance options, and character choices.

Mis-communication, egotistical management, lies, angry employees, disrespect to customers, and now a recent confession shows Bioware is in shambles

Within two days Anthem will have released for six weeks. EA, and Bioware held sale figures hostage claiming 'it's doing ok' PR. This could heed another EA butcher. So why the big deal?

"Six weeks= six million sales"- EA. A tough order for any game that's not a Rockstar or Call of Duty project, and yet EA had unrealistic expectations for Anthem as did Bioware. . . Or did they?

Well based on behind the scenes information from a recent Kotaku Q.A. Turns out Bioware for the most part was silently screaming into a pillow for help, knowing Anthem was never going to be the game they was forced to promote.

A lot at Bioware hated using Frostbite engine. Have done for almost a decade. Ambitious ideas from all projects using that engine crushed. Many of the team(s) also commonly got taken off Anthem to work on EAs cash-cow; Fifa. This and more killed developer moral and had done since Dragon Age: Inquisition_

While I'm not the biggest fan of even pre-Frostbite Bioware. I think this paints a picture of EAs inability to communicate with developers or get with the times. Bioware had a fan following, and they exploited the fans they gathered (still do with a select few). Killing whatever reputation Bioware gained over the decades. Doesn't help that they didn't come clean to the publisher_

Ninteen Bioware members/ and former tell why Anthem could never succeed

*Case any of you are too lazy to read the full thing. I grabbed some quotes that should spark some depth of situation. So if you don't take my word for it, take Biowares, while I've seen some defend Andromeda and Anthem. You know somethings wrong when the team(s) didn't even like what they made.

I actually cannot count the amount of ‘stress casualties’ we had on Mass Effect: Andromeda or Anthem. at BioWare means someone had such a mental breakdown from the stress they’re just gone for one to three months. Some come back, some don’t

We needed [Dragon Age: Inquisition] to fail in order for people to realize that this isn’t the right way to make games.

I think most people on the team felt like we didn’t know exactly what the game was or what it was supposed to be because it kept changing so much.

Using Frostbite to build an online-only action game, which this BioWare had never done before

Nobody you actually work with designed it, so you don’t know why this thing works the way it does, why this is named the way it is

It’s hard enough to make a game,” said a third BioWare developer. “It’s really hard to make a game where you have to fight your own tool set all the time.

It was level design, story, and world-building that got screwed the most, in that things kept changing and they had to rebuild a lot all the time

This article also telling the long fan rumor of a 'B-Team' to be complete gibberish. Bioware went back and forward with each project till the other studios closing. What really happened is poor management and focus.

Visceral Games did a similar interview with Kotaku pre-closure so do you think this is a sign of things to come?

Case and point. EA suck, and honestly Bioware wasn't much better. They had seven years with only excuses.

Let me know how you feel below and if you are a Bioware fan? What's your thoughts with current Bioware

*No suprise EA/ Bioware have made a PR statement dismissing the Kotaku article, even contradicting what actual Bioware staff mentioned. It's unbelievable EA/Bioware PR don't even take any form of responsibility. Shruging it off as another day at the office.

Bioware's done for.

@speedfreak48t5p: I sincerely hope that isn't true.

As the article hints for Bioware to have had freedom (be free from Frostbite), the loyal customer-base should have boycotted Dragon Age: Inquisition. Despite its mixed acclaim it was the best selling Bioware game of all time, beating out Mass Effect 3.

They could be fine though, from my understanding Anthem still sold "ok", just maybe not what EA hoped. It all depends on the development and marketing costings for the Anthem project. The management currently in place at Bioware can not continue for these working conditions.

At anyrate Bioware is stuck with Frostbite regardless if they continue. So I only see the momentum going further downhill.

@RSM-HQ: Man I'd love it if they became independent again... although I bet someone like MS would love to have them in their stables.

@hrt_rulz01: Think Bioware is too deep rooted with EA at this point, though I do see Microsoft being interested in Bioware considering the history they have together.

If magically Microsoft did get Bioware. Only see that as a positive regardless what some people think of the Xbox brand.

It removes the Frostbite problem, and Bioware could work next door to Obsidian. Both developers are known for story RPG games and could learn a lot from each other.

Yeah, exactly.

But yeah, don't see that ever happening. Sadly.

@hrt_rulz01: We'll know soon enough. If EA and Bioware still withhold sales this time tomorrow? It officially didn't hit the sales target. No one else made the claim, EA stated six million in six weeks with confidence.

And with a game seven years in production, assume a stupid level of funding, can only guess it won't end well for the developer many here seem to like.

I know all too well as a Bullfrog fan how it will turn out.

Eight years from now expect Mass Effect 4 on mobile devices. .

Show me a game that met a AAA-publishers sales target :P

Monster Hunter: World.

Oh, my bad. It succeeded expectations.

I started to replay Mass Effect 3 the other day, the problems started a long time ago. It's just finally caught up with them.

I watch alot of gamer youtubers talking about it and I never ever seen such a developer digging their own grave. I really like Bioware as developer but this is just sad! I got no reasons to believe they can deliver the next Dragon Age game either.

It is pretty bad, I take no joy in a developer or game flopping. Many people love what Bioware offered in the past.

But what's come forward shows a developer long begging for the gaming community to take notice. And PR blinded a lot of the fanbase with false promises and returning managment. Though the fabricated fan rumor of 'B-team' didn't help the situation.

Bioware staff members have been bullied, cried in the studio, and had no clue what they had to develop for over five years. Flight, the feature many enjoy wasn't even creators intent, it was a glitch an EA supervisor 'liked' so was forced in.

I don't see a positive to what they've had to deal with for close to a decade. And it's not just EA, the management for Bioware is clearly garbage.

@RSM-HQ said:

@hrt_rulz01: We'll know soon enough. If EA and Bioware still withhold sales this time tomorrow? It officially didn't hit the sales target. No one else made the claim, EA stated six million in six weeks with confidence.

And with a game seven years in production, assume a stupid level of funding, can only guess it won't end well for the developer many here seem to like.

I know all too well as a Bullfrog fan how it will turn out.

Eight years from know expect Mass Effect 4 on mobile devices. .

Sadly, I think this is highly possible :(

Team Meat took a stab at EA for the recent knowledge on Biowares troubles-

Also worth a note, it's officially been six weeks, was going to wait till the evening but while on my break decided who are we fooling. . We're not getting those sale numbers.

Which is ironic because EA recently updated finical income and player growth for Apex Legends and Battlefield Vs Firestorm expansion.

Wouldn't be surprised if bioware got axed. The company isn't the same anymore and many old members bailed.

Really want to know if a single person is still giving EA the benefit of the doubt? I mean Respawn has done great with Apex Legends but think Respawn should turn and run while they can. . EA is clearly a sinking ship run by incompetent monkeys relying on soccer team licencing to stay in business. If that bubble ever bursts they're pretty screwed.

Battlefield is under performing, Battle Royale fad will die down (at least for Apex), and they've wasted millions on a Destiny clone, just as they burnt money on bad Star War games.

Bioware is probably going to be given a grave this year. Makes me wonder how long EA have.

I think Bioware has no one else to blame but themselves. EA are by no means saints, but Bioware....eh. Bad management.

Bioware is already dead as most of its top ranking members already left the studio.

At this point I doubt there's anyone optimistic about Bioware's future. Their games have been dropping in quality for a while and now rumors of mismanagement are surfacing. What a shame.

Well EA forced the Frostbite Engine, forced a flight mechanic that the team(s) struggled to get working (and wasn't creators intent), forced veteran staff from Bioware to work on Fifa mid-development, created a false trailer Bioware then had to recreate, and also approve of the management-

we wholeheartedly stand behind every current and former member of our team that worked on the game, including leadership

They're both guilty of the results and poor conditions for development staff.

Then again the rest was pretty much Bioware crying for seven years not having a clue what the hell they're doing and management probably doing cocaine.

If we look back at all the developers that keeled over and died I wouldn't exactly paint EA as saints. But Bioware overall didn't exactly do a serviceable job, they just spent the time blaming the tools given despite agreeing to use them. Did they agree on a lot of the above? Probably not, I've read horror stories for game development but this is one of the worst cases of a game project in a while.

They are both guilty, you are right. To be fair, though, flight was a pretty awesome thing to incorporate and made the game highly enjoyable. I'd say that was a good call on EA's part.

Part of a job is doing what the boss asks, whether you agree with it or not. A group as talented as Bioware allegedly is (more likely was) simply makes it happen through work ethic and capability. While I can sympathize what it is like to work with tools that are overly complex, aren't right for the job, and so on, you can generally get over that hurdle if you want to. They were given the task of using Frostbite fairly early on in development from what I've read, they had plenty of time to adapt.

It's just sad that it has come to this. I don't take any pleasure from saying how much EA sucks as a parent company and how far Bioware has fallen, but I'm not going to be ignorant to the fact that we won't see any more games like KOTOR, Dragon Age, and Neverwinter Nights.

While true the article also states the difficulty doing so. With RPG mechanics, in an open world (also designing for air combat), and a third person perspective. Hindering with an engine not designed for any of that.

Then imagine taking some of the core team away from the project because the Fifa team is also having developer casualties.

A group as talented as Bioware allegedly is (more likely was)

To be honest, Bioware are more a smoke and mirrors developer and have been since popularity. If we break down systems, mechanics, and level design from even the highest praised games. It's pretty 'meh'

Bioware from my understanding have always been known for a good artistic team for the likes of cosmetics, music, and world building. They even have programmers talented in performance and stability (who clearly didn't make time for recent games).

But assuming they can make magic with a terrible tool-set/ engine is too much for realistic management not to factor. And really out Biowares area of speciality.

EA standing by its leadership for these games is really stupid. As is Bioware not coming clean early-on that this was too drastic a change to make a product from.

It's a sink or swim situation, with no land in sight.

Those who really paid for it was loyal customers who have long given Bioware the benefit of the doubt.

good read. i saw a blog post from a ubisoft dev claiming similar things about modern ubisoft.

by quoting and summarising the article you made a good op a great one - you saved me the effort of having to click off site and read through the article, and anything that saves effort is good user experience!

Thought I would attempt to break down the article seeing as it's over eleven thousand words of english text

Must say never been a fan of Jason Schreier, but this was one of the best pieces of gaming journalism I've seen in years.

Seems like it would be a waste to send them packing before at least squeezing out a Mass Effect remaster.

EA do not need Bioware for a remaster project if I'm being both blunt and honest.

Just as Burnout Paradise remaster was made after the team was disbanded, which was also stated to have sold poorly despite being a pretty good port; likely putting EA off the idea doing another for a less successful gaming franchise.

Mass Effect is also not the financially best Bioware series, it's Dragon Age. Dragon Age: Inquisition is Biowares best selling game of all time, so if EA did bite the bullet for Bioware IPs? it would be for a DA trilogy.

And I know many put the ME series over DA but EA does not think about quality, they think of sales and how to make the most money possible.

What EA would consider a failure, most companies would consider a huge success.

Not sure considering Biowares marketing and development was $100 million, and spends seven years in development hell.

Not to mention Anthem went on discount globally five days after release (25% off) and still failed to sell 6 million copies.

The two best selling retail priced games on record, released in 2019 are January's Resident Evil 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3. Anthem sold over two million globally in Febuary but that's the only month it reported decent sales (in a month with barely any competition) since then EA went quiet and refused to report the games progress, while giving hard numbers for Apex Legends and BFV.

For my guess, once word got out Anthem sucks, people stopped buying it in the larger scope. If you Google search 'Anthem' it comes up with memes like this-

Then add the newly confession and it likely will barely budge further.

BioWare employees have turned over so many times at this point. There's nothing about today's BioWare that still represents the original pre-2007 BioWare. Anyone still there should get out ASAP.

And there will never be a game that meets EAs sales expectations.

Fifa does if we're being brutally honest (developer keeping EA alive yearly).

EA is also very happy with how Apex Legends is performing, though that may change once the BR crowd jumps back to Fortnite.

Bad(but hardly surprising) news, Dragon Age 4 will be like Anthem with swords and dragons instead of guns and power armor. If you expect DA4 to be a single-player game, you can stop hoping now.

Saw this also (was noted alongside FO76 Repair-kits), wasn't sure if worth mention considering this dumpster-fire is already cindered through.

And assuming at this rate EA gives Bioware the time of day to release the game? which can only assume would be 'even' worse than Inquisition (not a game I personally rate highly).

So many games have done great in 2019, Kingdom Hearts 3/ Resident Evil 2 Remake/ Devil May Cry 5/ Apex Legends/ Sekiro/ Tetris 99. All gaming hits! These Western developed or demo-graphical focused games however, have been stinkers!

It seems the US gaming market is needing The Outer Worlds and that Mortal Kombat game to clear the rubbish recently released

^I'm currently playing Super Robot Wars T and interested on buying Resident Evil 2 Remake if SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays not coming out before Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Back to topic I think EA making Dragon Age into an online game like Anthem is a dick move within a dick move. Inquisition is already a crap but making it online-only is even crappier. I think Bioware have no longer have good reasons to exist anymore.

@lembu90:

and interested on buying Resident Evil 2 Remake

The real money saving question is; do you like past Resi games, or Survival Horror in general (the non Stealth Horror kind)?

Silent Hill, Demento, Dead Space, Alan Wake and The Evil Within?

I am very bias to a very good Survival Horror game, it's a genre of preference to me. But that is all Resident Evil 2 Remake is. A greatest hits of all the best features in past Resi games blended together. Excluding 5 and 6 also know as the Action games.

If you are thinking 'meh I didn't like past Resident Evil games', the new one will not win you over.

Suffers all the sins many people don't enjoy about Survival Horror games (limited ammo, one hit kills, bullet sponges, combine items is usually the solution, back tracking, puzzles with active enemies lurking during)