Dragon Age: The Veilguard - A woke disaster? Yep!

[Bunny Wigglesworth]

EA green lit another Dragon Age after Inquisition in 2015, meddled with it by wanting to add an online component, backpedaled scrapped that after Anthem imploded in 2018. They then restarted the game, Corona happens and the original founders leave. People like Mac Walters also leave, so the creative job goes to Corrine. This would be 2022.

So like the movie The Producers, but with vidya & trannys.

 

[Miller]

Bioware Edmonton is also coincidentally no longer hiring.

View attachment 6886837

I bet the troon dev on Bluesky isn't laughing anymore.

Where is this from?
If true, then what the fuck have they been doing for all these years?!

 

[Mettaur]

Where is this from?

https://tech4gamers.com/mass-effect-5-production-anytime-soon/

The Mark Darrah interview it's talking about has been separately covered by other outlets it's legit.

If true, then what the fuck have they been doing for all these years?!

They worked on Dragon Age Veilguard for 8 years in total. It was originally a singleplayer RPG, then EA demanded they switch it to a GAAS style game like Destiny/Anthem. Then after Anthem flopped EA demanded they switch it into a singleplayer only RPG a few years ago. Mark Darrah says ME5 is in "pre-production" but emphasizes multiple times in the interview that it hasn't entered "full production". I think what he's really trying to dance around is the game hasn't been fully greenlit and they're still convincing EA to fund it. And likely all of the articles written about it in the last few years have mainly been attempts to convince EA there's a market for it.

 

[Weltraumfürst]

Hold the phone, they released a teaser for a game that wasn't even in production, and wouldn't be for more than another year?

Are they retarded?

 

[Mettaur]

Hold the phone, they released a teaser for a game that wasn't even in production, and wouldn't be for more than another year?

Are they retarded?

This sort of thing happens constantly not just with games but with movies as well. It's an attempt to acquire funding by drumming up hype in the public. In this case EA is clearly very hesitant to greenlight a game by a studio that already tried to make another Mass Effect game and it flopped so badly they killed DLC plans for it. So they need to keep trying to convince EA that there's 1) a market for it and 2) if they produce something with Mass Effect in the title it'll sell well. But jury's still out if EA will fall for it again considering ME:A and now Veilguard have flopped. Showing that the Golden Goose is now barren.

This funding is very important as EA owns the studio and they can just stop paying them at any time they want to. And they can't acquire funding from another publisher due to this. It's really the only option they have right now as if they don't greenlight another Mass Effect title EA has no reason to keep paying their expensive office real estate and payroll costs.

 

[TrainWreckWatcher]

Hold the phone, they released a teaser for a game that wasn't even in production, and wouldn't be for more than another year?

Are they retarded?

Oh this is super common practice. They do it for investors and to build hype.
Which they hope will make investors see the hype and go "We'll give you more money!"

 

[Tanner Glass]

The sad thing is the people being laid off are almost certainly QA debuggers and 3D modelers shit like that.

The QA team is either an external team or was laid off ages ago. It's fairly common to lay off QA when there's nothing for them to QA - and at Bioware DA:V is done and ME5 isn't in a state where you can even begin to QA it.

So like the movie The Producers, but with vidya & trannys.

No - they actually lost gigantic piles of money from this.

 

[Weltraumfürst]

Oh this is super common practice. They do it for investors and to build hype.
Which they hope will make investors see the hype and go "We'll give you more money!"

Oh yeah, I get it, but despite 3 and Andromeda, ME is a popular franchise and they're backed by EA, so that shouldn't be an issue. It sounds to me like they have the money, but no idea what the game's even supposed to be.

I mean, I don't know, I certainly wouldn't want to play a Mass Effect game by the people who made Veilguard, so maybe it's for the best.

Either way, this shit is depressing, even though watching them fail is funny.

 

[Peaches the Wonder Cat]

Is Mass Effect still that much of a hot property? You have gamers now who were too young to remember when ME3 came out. It's been 18 years since the first game came out and 13 since ME3. MEA was a flop that was selling for five dollars a few months after launch.

Gamers get old like everyone else and I don't see a path for ME5 to do well. People who would have bought and played that game nonstop now have jobs and families, and the target market thinks of Bioware as the tranny studio.

 

[LazyLizard]

Is Mass Effect still that much of a hot property? You have gamers now who were too young to remember when ME3 came out. It's been 18 years since the first game came out and 13 since ME3. MEA was a flop that was selling for five dollars a few months after launch.

Gamers get old like everyone else and I don't see a path for ME5 to do well. People who would have bought and played that game nonstop now have jobs and families, and the target market thinks of Bioware as the tranny studio.

even dying franchises can become successes in the right hand, look at marvel, no one reads the comics, no one watches the movies and shows anymore, it's been ridiculed and hated for a decade and then out of nowhere Marvel Rivals releases and it's a smash hit.

in the right hands Mass Effect and Dragon age can be just as great or even greater then they used to be but bioware sure as shit ain't the right hands.

 

[Miller]

Oh yeah, I get it, but despite 3 and Andromeda, ME is a popular franchise and they're backed by EA, so that shouldn't be an issue. It sounds to me like they have the money, but no idea what the game's even supposed to be

That's what I think too. After the events of ME3 there's no reason to go back to that era for another ME game. The ideal "new" Mass Effect game should take place on Andromeda but they have fucked up the lore and the setting in ME:A.
They should make an action/co-op game set during the First Contact War, a quick cash grab with live updates. It's not the best idea for a ME game but that's probably the only thing they can do in that universe anyway.

 

[Jace on ice]

It can be done if the devs are talented enough.

Prior to 2023 I don't think anyone would have predicted a turn based CRPG that was a sequel to a long dead franchise like Baldur's Gate would turn out to be a smash hit with normie gamers.

 

[LazyLizard]

That's what I think too. After the events of ME3 there's no reason to go back to that era for another ME game. The ideal "new" Mass Effect game should take place on Andromeda but they have fucked up the lore and the setting in ME:A.
They should make an action/co-op game set during the First Contact War, a quick cash grab with live updates. It's not the best idea for a ME game but that's probably the only thing they can do in that universe anyway.

ever since ME3 came out i've always though the next game should have been a prequel, set all the way back during the last cycle with the protheans, it wouldn't have to have anything to do with the reapers we got 50k years to work with. We could explore protheans wars with the other races, could fight for or against the protheans empire, explore the universe, study different races and maybe uplift some of them.

 

[Ishtar]

The biggest problem for ME is Shepherd's story(what ME is about) is done. Like his story is over, the reapers are defeated. You either bring back the reapers or introduce a "bigger badder" threat-both of which completely undercut the trilogy.

One thing I've always liked about ME3's endings beyond their content is...they decisively and cleanly end the story. No sequel bait or endless releases. Stories have to end, and when a story ends-it shouldn't be continued.

Shepherd's story is over.

I would imagine whatever is left of the writing team is arguing frantically "what is this going to be about, how new should it be, how many callbacks? What about the antagonists, what choices are we going to ignore?"

They could make an excellent game and it will still enrage half the fanbase for one legitimate reason or another.

 

[OutInTheRain]

Realistically though, what could this be? Bioware have successfully killed the hype for all their reputable IPs and with their track record and the current state of the AAA industry as a whole there is not a chance in hell EA would let them roll the dice on a brand new franchise.

I agree, what Bioware would need to pull off is the equivalent of a disgraced director making a well regarded indie film that turns a profit. They would need to have a fully developed idea, that can be made in two years, for less than 50 million. Something that doesn't come with a lot of risk and has a low floor to turn a profit. EA would have to know exactly what they were getting before they signed a check.

However, I think Bioware is incapable, and EA doesn't trust them enough.

 

[Ishtar]

I don't think we are even going to get an ME trailer until 2026 at the earliest, with maybe a late 2027 release date(if not a few years later).

That's assuming the game comes out at all.

 

[Oliver Onions]

Hold the phone, they released a teaser for a game that wasn't even in production, and wouldn't be for more than another year?

Are they retarded?

Presented, for your consideration:

 

[Jace on ice]

I don't think we are even going to get an ME trailer until 2026 at the earliest, with maybe a late 2027 release date(if not a few years later).

That's assuming the game comes out at all.

They just said it hasn't even entered pre production.

Very high chance it never gets released.

 

[Mettaur]

The biggest problem for ME is Shepherd's story(what ME is about) is done. Like his story is over, the reapers are defeated. You either bring back the reapers or introduce a "bigger badder" threat-both of which completely undercut the trilogy.

Bioware was so smug about ME3's endings when the game launched yet it still haunted by them. They effectively financially wrecked the company as you can't easily make a sequel afterwards. This wouldn't be a problem if the company was competently staffed but it wasn't.

 

[AnOminous]

Realistically though, what could this be? Bioware have successfully killed the hype for all their reputable IPs and with their track record and the current state of the AAA industry as a whole there is not a chance in hell EA would let them roll the dice on a brand new franchise.

Funny how all this DIE stuff results in the studio that does it dying.