The Steady Decline of BioWare

A lot of obituaries are going to be penned for BioWare over the next days. Anthem's shaky release only adds to a narrative that's taken shape over the past decade: BioWare's best days are behind it.

Once regarded as one of the very best RPG studios in the business, BioWare's games have drawn more and more criticism over the years.

EA, being the easy target that it is, tends to catch most of the blame for BioWare's troubles. However that's only part of the story. The truth is that BioWare was already on its current path when EA entered the picture.

[TimelessDbz]

Bioware is doing fine.

[Fluttershy77]

From Baldur's Gate, to KOR and then Mass Effect 1/2 and Dragon Age I think in those games and can't help but smile...

and then ME3, Inquisition, SR gets cancelled, Andromeda and now this nightmare... And with each release you see a diminish in the quality... and now they announce the next Dragon Age will include "live game" (Idk WTF that means, but they compare it with mmos, with MTs and subscriptions model...) ... Something is rotten in the state of Denmark!

EA... they're sucking out the marrow out of Bioware's bones. So, no, they are not doing fine.

[Imalwaysright]

Neverwinter Nights and Jade Empire are also masterpieces.

[kevinsheeks]

This post is akin to that guy standing outside the burning building saying everything is just fine . . .Bioware is not doing just fine this needed to be a W and it clearly was not Bioware may be on the chopping block soon but it's not all their fault EA played a large part in tearing them down and forcing the games as a service stance ruining developers creativity.

[JesusBuiltmyHotrod]

LOL....when people live on their own planet.

[Flewid638]

Define "fine" lol

[Shikoku]

No it isn't

[Hungryalpaca]

With atrocious sales? You call that fine? LOL

[OctaneLord]

Yeah. I really don't get all the hate for the game. I'm having fun with it. It's got some issues that they will need to patch but what game upon release doesn't these days.

The critics in the entertainment industry as a whole need to stop drinking the koolaid and actually form their own opinions for once.

[Gaming4Life1981]

Yea it's a fun game and bioware is just fine.

[JesusBuiltmyHotrod]

you having fun is ok.....many people have fun with mediocre things , it's normal...does not change what the game is ultimately. One big disappointment.

[AspiringProGenji]

The critics have formed their own opinions and agreed this game is a disappointment. It has a lot of issues and bad design choices. Your deception of having fun with a game that already offers everything in the first two hours with its serviceable gameplay loop is blinding you from what this game is truly is. This is exactly what publishers want with these Game as service games. They don’t care about proper game deisgn but making you spend more. Hell They have already nerfed the loot system so you don’t get shit. So much fun...

[Gaming4Life1981]

I can care less about what the critics say, I played it and formed my own opinion. The loot system will be fixed I'm sure and this is not the first game that has a lot drop problem. I am not in anyway saying the game doesn't have its share of problems but it is fun and I am enjoying it.

I dont think proper game design has gone away at all but they should have pushed this game back a couple of months to add to it.

[Shikoku]

Talk to me once those 3 strongholds get boring cause you have nothing else to do. Anthem is a shift this shift is seen in ever industry from producing quality finished products to just good enough you'll buy it and I dont want that for gaming a move away from finished polished industry defining examples is not good for the medium or the consumer base

[Hungryalpaca]

It’s missing the entire LOOT part of looter shooter. It also has 0 variety.

You’re the people who need to stop drinking the koolaid. The game is more barebones than vanilla destiny. Yes. I’ve played it. 19 hours and I don’t plan on going back to get a “masterwork” gun that looks and behaves exactly the same as the first gun I picked up.

[Gaming4Life1981]

Well you got your fill so move on and you must have liked it to put in 19 hours.

[Hydrazinezz]

Anthem is garbage. 4/10. Plebs will eat it up because it looks cool. Sad, the game has no content but will be “added later” give me a break. Worst loot shooter to date. Their were games made in 2 years that had more content and more story than that piece of shit that “supposedly” took 6 years to develop. If that took 6 years to make that monstrosity, they literally should just give up.

[King_Noctis]

If people enjoy it then they can enjoy it. You should learn that people have different taste in everything in life, including gaming.

[Casepb]

I get the hate, but I still enjoy it because I'm not a sheep like 90% of the people hating on the game because some YouTube loser told them to. Sure the game is a mess and is missing features and improvements even Destiny 2 had. If EA allows the game to live it will only get better. Who knows if we will ever see that day though.

[AspiringProGenji]

We are not sheeps for avoiding games that lack content and dissappint. I would say the ones that still fall for the hype even with all the warnings signs are the sheep.

Listen to yourself... You are okay with games lacking content day 1 and be finished later. You are playing in these GaSS moron publishers

[TheEnigma313]

That's what they get for selling themselves to EA.

[Tross]

I still blame EA. BioWare was in a tough spot financially when EA bought them, but they have since experienced a decline in quality.

[TheEnigma313]

EA doesn't have anything left besides Apex, FIFA, and Madden. They destroyed all they good developers.

[Fist4achin]

The execs at EA suck. It feels like they are trying to make a stories game annually like their FIFA and Madden games and the creativity doesn't quite work like that. They are only interested in the money. I get they are a corporation and money matters, but eventually your customers will lose interest in the turds you're selling.

[King_Noctis]

Even Fifa is a cashgrab now with the UT mode. The incremental update for each new installment every years doesn’t help either.

[Hardiman]

I get that it's the thing to hate on EA but sometimes it's not a fad, it's the truth. Their vision and what they want the same industry to become is enough to rally against them!

But this is about Bioware and there was a Bioware before EA and there is a Bioware after EA.

[kevinsheeks]

The second bioware was purchased and the founders left should have been a clear indication something was wrong, not soon after they lost some of their veteran writers . . . people don't leave a perfectly functional ship, they leave a sinking ship to get out before it eventually kills them all, in a perfect world EA would have purchased them sat down told them "you guys have been killing it here is a bigger budget just keep doing what you've been doing and we'll support you" instead EA took a good company imposed their views on them and shattered what before was manufacturing some of the best products, and the horrible part is every-time Bioware messes up even though I believe EA is the mastermind Bioware takes the blame and when EA closes them even though we know the fault is with EA as well they will say it was because Bioware themselves Didn't meet expectations . .I believe Bioware still has it in them to make a stellar product if EA just gets the F out the way.

EA refuses to let their developers live up to their glory days, I bet if EA let Bioware go right now their next product would be a hit.

I'm not saying developers shouldn't have oversight but you don't mess with your moneymakers . . .this would be like sony meddling with naughty dog while their developing games telling them how they should do it and what to implement . . .NOOO get back Naughty Dog knows what their doing you don't interfere with your Veteran Developers they've got this But EA doesn't get this . . they take developers meddle and break shyt and once the company has been torn down and the reputation is gone they come in and end the company as if they aren't the main reason for the companies downfall . .

[Hardiman]

I've went back and forth on the Bioware situation and if they could deliver a game that would resonate like their games used to. You hit the nail on the head with the analogy of the sinking ship so I think this is a situation of "it is what it is!"

The Bioware that we have today delivers Andromeda and Anthem, the semantics don't seem to matter!

[Shikoku]

Um no Bioware wont exist AFTER EA. Go back to E3 like 10yrs ago and see how many devs just dont exist anymore that were tied to EA. If Anthem fails to me expectations like Andromeda did expect the same thing to happen to Anthem the DLC plans cancelled and the thing to be put on ice just like Mass Effect.

[Hardiman]

Yeah that's what we're saying, at least I am. What is so frustrating is EA as the capital to basically allow Bioware to do anything they've ever dreamed of. But with most of the key players gone from the old guard I'm not sure we would get a game thd caliber of Knights of the sold Republic, Jade Empire, Mass Effect or Dragon Age Origins.

The bitch of it is EA holds the Star Wars license and Bioware did Mass Effect and it doesn't take much imagination to see what could have been.

You can go back twenty years and see how many devs existed and the franchises they did but after EA the studios and IP's are gone! This is why so many refer to EA as a cancer!

[Ogygian]

Mass Effect 3 was their last great game, but even then, the ending was poorly-implemented.

[Shikoku]

One name some up Anthem Casey Hudson.

[Profchaos]

Bioware have messed up everything since Andromeda and have been putting out uninspired titles since me3

[Reefskye]

Sorry i disagree Inquisition is worse than ME:A i tried playing it again the game is just more grindy than most modern MMO's is boring and lackluster. The story has a lot to be desired. The only reason DA:I lasted 90+ hours was because of its awful leveling system, each area sectioned off in to levels just like any MMO. how it got a Game of the Year award just shows how bad gaming journalism is these days, ME:A had a better leveling and combat system, the story left a lot to be desired like DA:I but it was a massive improvement over it. The story has always pushed bioware games forward and DA:I is a leveling time gated mess that after getting to the last 3-4 areas the game becomes a lifeless grind.

ME:A gets way more stick than it should have DA:I didnt have nothing to live up to compared to ME:A cos lets be honest story wise mass effect was the stronger franchise., yet DA:I and its MMO style level padding has been the worst single player experience of the last 8 years.

I'll even go far to say Anthem's leveling experience was far more enjoyable than "close the 60th rift in the game", "Fetch me 15 of 12 different items just to get a little more XP to move on to next area"

[Traecy]

I was never interested in Bioware games but Anthem is the first Bioware game that I'm playing & so far it's fun to me.

[Hungryalpaca]

It’s fun for a few hours and then you realize you’re doing the same exact thing over and over with no reward because the loot isn’t loot. It’s copies of what you already have with a slight increase in power. That’s it.

Not to mention all the environments are the same. All the enemies are the same, behave the same and are brain dead, the bosses are a joke, there’s next to no armor to u lock, you have to grind for HOURS to get enough to craft a single good item of which isn’t guaranteed good stats etc. It’s a TERRIBLE looter shooter. Easily the worst one.

[Traecy]

So far I'm enjoying it.

[Hydrazinezz]

Dumbass people.

[carcarias]

Bioware isn't in decline so much as it isn't actually Bioware anymore. The people who made the games that gave it the status it has left long ago now. That Bioware ended with all the titles that people loved under it's belt and the new developers don't even seem to want to make the type of game it used to be famous for.

'New Bioware', as it has been since the transitional title ME3, is in effect a new entity.....and it hasn't got a great track record to decline from really. As much as DA Inquisition got praise from critics, it got a lot of hate from players too. I won't go into all of that games failings here though.

Apart from that, what has New Bioware done? The utter mess that was ME Andromeda and now Anthem? A game no one asked for from a developer that used to be a story driven, single player RPG creator?

Bioware as we knew it shut it's doors a few years back and this development team would be better off using a new company name in order to avoid expectations that they're not even trying to live up to anymore.

[AK91]

F*ck EA

[Smokehouse]

Andromeda can’t be forgiven. I liked mass effect 3 with all of its flaws but what a joke andromeda was. I will never look at BioWare the same again, even if it was the b team. I had mild hype for anthem but i havent picked it up.

[Imalwaysright]

10 years ago Bioware was my favorite studio in the industry. They made masterpiece after masterpiece but starting with DA2 they've been going downhill and today I wouldn't even put them in the top 10 best studios in this industry.

[MegaKooter]

Get woke, go broke.

[MegaKooter]

When you're entire dev team is made up of mostly un-talented diversity hires, it's no surprise your product fails.

[BlaqMagiq1]

Just shut em down already. They're not capable of making great games anymore.

[Platformgamer]

i just don't care about bioware, the only SH i'm sad EA closed is visceral games :(

[philm87]

Mass Effect Andromeda was a brilliant game, best in the series (maybe not for story). People just look back at the previous titles with rose tinted glasses.

[JunMei]

Honestly, their misfires were EA's fault. Mass Effect 3's ending was still being worked and reworked but was rushed out the door by EA. Andromeda was rushed out the door by EA. And Anthem was forced upon them by EA creating a no win situation. If the game does well, then we probably won't see the kinds of games we want from Bioware. And if it DOES do well, then we will only see more like Anthem. Eff EA.