EA says EA stuff

Increase engagement for a rich something or another, increasingly in a competitive engagement rich narrative resonate broad.

A suggests Dragon Age: The Veilguard might have sold better if it was live-service - so what does this mean for Mass Effect 5?

Players "increasingly seek shared world features and deeper engagement".

Dragon Age: The Veilguard might have sold more copies and made more money for EA if it had been a live-service game, the publisher's top brass appear to have suggested.

Speaking to investors last night following the release of EA's latest quarterly results, both EA boss Andrew Wilson and the company's chief financial officer suggested the game's offline, one-and-done nature was to blame for it not meeting the publisher's sales expectations.

"In order to break out beyond the core audience, games need to directly connect to the evolving demand of players who increasingly seek shared world features and deeper engagement alongside high-quality narratives in this beloved category," Wilson said.

"Dragon Age had a high-quality launch and was well reviewed by critics and those who played. However, it did not resonate with a broad enough audience in this highly competitive market."

After a long and bumpy development, Dragon Age: The Veilguard finally emerged last year as a single-player game. But, of course, an earlier iteration of the project had been intended to include online play and live-service features.

The length of the project's development is in large part due to the fact that EA flip-flopped on the game initially being single-player, then live-service, then single-player again - a decision taken after the high-profile flop of BioWare's actual live-service effort Anthem.

Now, EA appears to be suggesting the game should have stayed as a live-service after all.

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard underperformed icing the competitive dynamics of the single-player RPG market," EA's chief financial officer Stuart Canfield said - leaving little wiggle room for how EA sees the genre's future.

"Historically, blockbuster storytelling has been the primary way our industry bought beloved IP to the players," Canfield continued. "The game's financial performance highlights [the] evolving industry landscape and reinforces the importance of our actions to reallocate resources towards our most significant and highest potential opportunities."

The big, unspoken question here now, of course, is what this means for Mass Effect 5. Currently, BioWare has given no indication that the game will be a live-service. But these fresh comments by EA execs certainly raise the question of whether it is going to bankroll another single-player BioWare game once more.

Alternatively, perhaps we've seen the evidence that EA will support a single-player Mass Effect - albeit via the newly slimmed-down BioWare that has emerged this month after many staff were moved elsewhere, and some sadly lost their jobs.

Mass Effect 5 lacks a release date, of course, and appears to still be several years away.

Like I am so fond of saying: this is late-stage capitalism. No concern for product, no concern for consumer, no concern for employee; just a concern for stock prices and shareholders. If we go out of business Tuesday, how can I make this company worth the most Monday. Who cares about Wednesday!?!?

We have C-suite dipshits essentially failing upward, generating more C-suite jobs, while the plebs get quashed further down, their businesses (as developers) shut down from poor leadership, and so on.

These business-degree holding jackasses just tell themselves what they want to hear.

EA saying a lot without really saying anything. 😭

And he get paid millions to poop out shit from his gob.

thats how investor calls go

Well if you had any hope ME5 was going to be decent you can let that go.

"A suggests Dragon Age: The Veilguard might have sold better if it was live-service"

This convinced me that drugs lie to us.........before I read this I enjoyed smoking a blunt, partying once in a while, drinking my bottle of Tully...........but now?

Wow..............

Interesting theory. I think it would sell better if it wasn't shit.

Was it shit though? I only ask because you must have played it to have come to that conclusion.

EA was the best back in the 16-bit era, just about every game they made was awesome, ever since then they've just declined, I can't remember the last game I bought from EA.

And I certainly didn't read any of the OP's post, and not because of the OP, just because the head of gaming companies are mainly dickheads who are not worth listening to.

No, I actually have this superhuman ability to see flaws in games I haven't played.

So, you didn't play it and you're judging it was shit based on what?

@mrbojangles25: what comes after late state capitalism? Besides massive amounts of burnouts and massive amounts of people demotivated to work for pennies, the people that do the actual work and make our products?

I suggest that Dragon Age: The Veilguard might have sold better if it was as good as Origins.

CEO's: the only who can be incompetent, completely out of touch, lose billions for the company over their decisions and still keep their jobs

Its baffling how these people get to keep their jobs failure after failure

Yeah, the game needed to be live-service... cause that went so well with Anthem... seriously, these people

Who's that in the OP picture? Is he from Stepford Wives or Get Out or something?

How is Andrew Wilson-bot still employed?

Definitely a 10/10 take, someone give that guy a raise!

@djoffer123: He deserves something just for having prettier eyelashes than Raska Boosh

The funny thing is they originally made it as a live service game before changing it.

We live in a world saturated with games, games that are cheap, BC games that span generations, games still on our blacklists, games on our subscription services, live service games that already suck up every minute of your free time as it is. There's so much to play, and most of it is cheap. Why spend $70 on something that will be ½ that in a few weeks or $20 on sale in a few months, or on EA Access?

I honestly never cared for Dragon Age series. But if you were to tell me it's supposed to become some online never ending grind then I'm definitely not going to be interested.

Feudalism.

As an American, we will idolize our corporate rulers while being thankful for the golden handcuffs they've placed us in. "Thank you, lord, for this job. Oh, no raise this year? No cost of living adjustment, either? Well...at least I have a job, I guess. And if I work hard, I can be a lord too!"

No. No you can't.

Baldurs Gate 3 completely nullifies his robotic jargon talk entirely.

Making Mass Effect whatever live service won't help, it has a bad rep now. Damaged goods, like Bioware.

This is what you get when you're with EA, practically every single company.

Maybe if they put ads in the game it would have done better.

@last_lap: @Litchie: You don't need to play every game to know it's not worth playing. Bioware have for the past decade+ been dumping out trainwrecks and I've played a few of them, none I would recommend even those I loath.

The Veilguard is notoriously panned across the board with only Bioware zealots and paid critics giving it any form of praise. With that praise being a dull and not so helpful "well I liked it". . .

Telling someone they have to play every game to know whether it is good or bad isn't true or false.

You'll have first hand experience to its shortcomings for sure.. however no one had to play E.T. or Superman 64 to know they're shit. It doesn't take a genius to see a moldy apple.

Word carries, and from reliable sources that give details, communities that give the breakdowns, all painting a clear picture of honesty you won't get from Bioware fanbois who will lie often (denial is a bitch). I would know, was told Anthem, Andromeda, & Inquisition was great from the same people defending Veilguard. & well I don't really rate those games highly at all.. In fact I rate them very, very poorly as someone who gave them a shot. & I have done breakdowns and reviews to why they suck, so hopefully someone can avoid what I had to experience.

The fact is, you'll have already wasted valuable time you could have spent elsewhere, and not wasted money giving greedy idiots, well-known for making bad products, a reason to make more garbage. Why support that??

The old saying is "put your money where your mouth is".. and suddenly because we are the argument is "no.. buy & play it anyway"

Yeah.. no! while some torture themselves to play Veilguard I was enjoying my gaming time with Astro Bot. And if you want to try a Bioware game worth playing? my answer to that is play the first two Mass Effect games, you can tell they had talent, with love and passion for the craft during those games. I came into both games very late and was happy with my time with both, they're generally enjoyable.

*Aware one mans garbage can sometimes be another mans treasure my argument to that is, if you liked Anthem, as in generally enjoyed your time with it? consider a therapist. Because you clearly hate yourself. Endless loading screens and minute long stutters with epileptic progress jumps, painful tedious objectives, frequent map clipping with subpar shooting when the game finally does work isn't fun.

@RSM-HQ said:

@last_lap: @Litchie: You don't need to play every game to know it's not worth playing. Bioware have for the past decade+ been dumping out trainwrecks and I've played a few of them, none I would recommend even those I loath.

The Veilguard is notoriously panned across the board with only Bioware zealots and paid critics giving it any form of praise. With that praise being a dull and not so helpful "well I liked it". . .

Telling someone they have to play every game to know whether it is good or bad isn't true or false.

You'll have first hand experience to its shortcomings for sure.. however no one had to play E.T. or Superman 64 to know they're shit. It doesn't take a genius to see a moldy apple.

Word carries, and from reliable sources that give details, communities that give the breakdowns, all painting a clear picture of honesty you won't get from Bioware fanbois who will lie often. I would know, was told Anthem, Andromeda, & Inquisition was great from the same people defending Veilguard. & well I don't really rate those games highly at all.. In fact I rate them very, very poorly as someone who gave them a shot. & I have done breakdowns and reviews to why they suck, so hopefully someone can avoid what I had to experience.

The fact is, you'll have already wasted valuable time you could have spent elsewhere, and not wasted money giving greedy idiots, well-known for making bad products, a reason to make more garbage. Why support that??

The old saying is "put put your money where your mouth is".. and suddenly because we are the argument is "no.. buy & play it anyway"

Yeah.. no! while some torture themselves to play Veilguard I was enjoying my gaming time with Astro Bot.

*Aware one mans garbage can sometimes be another mans treasure my argument to that is, if you liked Anthem, as in generally enjoyed your time with it? consider a therapist. Because you clearly hate yourself.

The interesting parts are in the bold.

Let's discuss the first bolded part.

"The Veilguard is notoriously panned across the board with only Bioware zealots and paid critics giving it any form of praise. With that praise being a dull and not so helpful "well I liked it". . ."

So, if a critic likes the game, then they are paid, or if a gamer likes it then they're Bioware zealots. That's crazy talk, for instance the PS5 version has the most reviews (73) now 55 are positive and 18 are mixed with no negative reviews, and yet you want me and anybody reading this that 55 of those reviews are paid to post a positive score? yeah nah, that's not true, and hardly panned across the board as you say, unless you're talking Youtubers and if you are that's even crazier talk because Youtubers are nobodies and are more acceptable to being bought off.

Now the second bolded part.

"*Aware one mans garbage can sometimes be another mans treasure my argument to that is, if you liked Anthem, as in generally enjoyed your time with it? consider a therapist. Because you clearly hate yourself."

Different people like different games, for instance I loved Ryse and it was a game that was mostly panned, doesn't mean I hate myself and should consider seeing a therapist. Those who judge others for the games they play should consider seeing a therapist.

See i'd rather play Veilguard over Astrobot, and I've hardly even seen much of either game, but Astro is something I know I wouldn't be interested in.

As for Litchie, well he knew he screwed up with his comment, hence why he never replied back.

@last_lap:

So, if a critic likes the game, then they are paid, or if a gamer likes it then they're Bioware zealots.

Details have already come out that EA paid for positive Dragon Age: The Veilguard reviews, they've done this for a decade with many games that had early impressions with mixed to negative takes.

In fact they went a step further and refused to give out review codes to outlets that had mixed to negative responses with Veilguard with early impressions. Some of the outlets have even come out about this. As for the Bioware zealots, already covered that with Anthem and Andromeda fans. You can disagree but I also think the proof is in the pudding_

Also don't think a game I enjoy getting good reviews really matters, I liked Resident Evil 3 Remake and critics panned it to hell and back. So again you are pulling things in which was never noted. An argument for the sake of argument. A game being flawed with much to enjoy is different from a bug ridden stuttering mess with very few redeeming qualities

Different people like different games, for instance I loved Ryse and it was a game that was mostly panned.

It's called 'respect from a far' and I do that with a lot, a lot of games.

Like many I not only don't have the time to play every game, I also don't like every game type. That's doesn't mean they're bad, or I think they're bad, just not for me. Don't feel the same way about Anthem. It's just a piece of shit.

As for Ryse, not played however I've read mixed positive on the game. It was short and kinda one-note but incredibly beautiful visually. Which kinda sums up Crytek gaming. Honestly seems like the equivalent to PlayStations Heavenly Sword. Which also had its fans.

If anything that just seems 'fine' not jumping to the heavens but also not terrible. I think that's a far cry from Andromeda and Anthem which had horrible coding issues and generally painful to experience from both a visual perspective and well progressing the games. If you always got stuck in an endless loading screen and important NPCs not showing up would you find that good? not to mention very few reasons to keep coming back?? I gotta doubt bruh.

So in that, seems Ryse has quite a few redeeming qualities, in fact I don't see why you think it's comparable to Anthem in the slightest. Anthem has 'flying can be neat when it decides to work' and that's it. One thing.. And not even something that can hold a $70 game with advertised microtransactions.

The only hate I've seen for Ryse are butthurt PlayStation fanbois who shouldn't be taken seriously. A fanboi is never worth paying attention to, because they're generally stupid, unable to look at something objectively.

See i'd rather play Veilguard over Astrobot

Well I don't know your reasons to avoid Astro Bot; this is System-Wars so I assume PlayStation.. maybe you dislike 3D Platformers?

Though I don't think that's a good reason to want to play Veilguard, with much more enjoyable alternatives.

Furthermore the difference is >would you recommend someone to play Veilguard over, let's say Ryse< and what are your reasons to recommend?

If you could recommend a game to someone would Veilguard really be your choice?? Do you really want a team that made arguably three duds in a row to get the funding to make three more?

Those who judge others for the games they play should consider seeing a therapist

Ah the 'nuh uh you' spin.

Regardless who says I don't? subjected myself to three modern Bioware games, naturally I've been to therapy. Anytime I think I've done something generally stupid that seems to be mentally damaging I've seeked out help.

My point is if you hate yourself that much to put yourself through "stutters with epileptic progress jumps" and consider that absolute cinema you are ****ing nuts bro!!

Honestly I don't even think the Anthem defenders like the game anyway, so majority don't need help. they're just nostalgic Bioware fans clinging to better times hoping for a resurgence that'll never happen (it's called denial) and based on sales I'd be shocked if majority even bought Veilguard.

As for Litchie, well he knew he screwed up with his comment, hence why he never replied back.

Whatever Litchies take on the matter my overarching point is the same, you don't have to play a game that has been detailed on why it's so heavily flawed to know it's heavily flawed. We know why Veilguard blows and it's many, many reasons. When a dumb meme is getting more likes than the games offical trailers, something is becoming boldly clear_

Games can be flawed and enjoyable, yes. Can be, but the good usually has to outweigh the bad. Modern Bioware games don't and certainly not Anthem.

No sorry, just didn't care enough. Thought it was silly and didn't need a reply. RSM gave his clever take as well, so I thought I could sit back on this one.

On information I've gathered. Is that the reply you wanted?

My stance is, if it wasn't clear before, I think Veilguard is crap. You can judge a game you've never played just fine. The more information you have about the game, the better you can judge it.

@RSM-HQ: I wasn't comparing Ryse to Anthem per se, just one game that got panned also. I haven't played Anthem, and have never done any research on the game, so I have no real opinion on it.

As for Veilguard over Astrobot, yeah, i'd rather play an rpg over a kids platformer, that kids platformer might be better in the eyes of 99/100 people, but if the 100th person is my eyes, there the only ones that count. Games come down to personal preference, and just because you might hate a game it doesn't mean others will.

And devs have always picked and chose who they send review codes too, but that is a LOT different to paying for outright positive reviews. I get you're dead set again Veilguard, but you have to look at reason at some point.

And just for the record, I stated from the beginning that I wasn't buying Veilguard, so this isn't me trying to defend it because I like it, I just merely stated that one should play it before they absolutely pan it. While yes you can gather information on any game, but for me I need to play it before I can 100% know for sure that it sucks. Like I sid though, if rpg's aren't your thing, then you can judge not to buy it because you know you won't like it, just like how I wouldn't buy Astrobot because I know I won't like it, but I don't hate it.

You can think what you want, and if you gathered information that tells you that you won't like it, doesn't mean the game is crap though.

Absolutely late stage capitalism... The signs are overwhelming at this point. We're in the roaring 20s right before the great depression.

Gotta make those excuses for not meeting expectations, but damn that's hilarious.

Yes, it does. If I gather enough information to know that I won't like the game at all, it's very safe to say that the game is crap to me.

Unless you think I'm saying the game is factually crap? Cause that's obviously not right, it's just my opinion.
And a lot of other people's opinion as well, it seems.

I've never liked any BioWare game really. Kotor which is a lot of people's masterpiece baby, was really fucking boring, and I hated the gameplay. If you have no idea how to make interactive combat, I guess it's good to constantly pause the game to give characters automove orders instead, but it's super lame. I think pretty much no one would care about it if it wasn't Star Wars. Mass Effect was ok, but I never wanted to go back to it. Another game considered as a masterpiece by many, and I'd give it a 7/10 at most.

Ah so I see what's going on here. It's more the dev behind the games kind of thing, toy see the name BioWare and automatically dismiss it.

Well, I liked the KOTOR games, liked Jade Empire, and the Mass Effect games too, but others I haven't bothered playing like Anthem because it was focused on mp, and didn't play the Dragon Age games because they were massive time sinks at the time. I don't judge games on the dev behind them though.