But so far, its seemed like outside of mixed critical reception, EA hasnt been thrilled with Andromedas sales performance. A sequel, and really Mass Effect as a whole, seems like its been put on hold indefinitely after Andromeda. And right now it looks extremely unlikely that Andromeda will even get its strongly-hinted-at single player DLC, which is almost unfathomable for a game like this. So EA is clearly disappointed, right?
Not so, according to their latest financial report. EA reported strong earnings, and repeatedly cited Mass Effect Andromeda as a solid revenue driver. From CFO Blake Jorgensen:
"Year-on-year growth was driven by the Mass Effect Andromeda sales, captured in the quarter and by FIFA, Jorgensen said. Digital net sales were $681 million, a new record for the first quarter, and up $113 million on the year-ago period. The increase reflects strength in live services, together with our mobile business. In addition, Mass Effect Andromeda was a significant contributor. Full game PC and console downloads generated net sales of $111 million, 32% higher than last year. This was driven by Mass Effect Andromeda sales captured in the quarter.
Thats three separate citations of Mass Effect Andromeda helping EA do well in the quarter, which is the first time I can remember that EA has been publicly singing the games praises. The assumption was that with a sequel and even DLC axed, that EA has been displeased with Andromeda overall, but thats certainly not what were hearing here.
Before this earnings report, the icing of Mass Effect sort of made sense. If the game was a miserable financial failure, it didnt make sense to throw more good money after bad. But if EA really was bolstered by Andromedas performance, I dont really understand why the game wouldnt at least see one or two rounds of DLC, even if a sequel was a tougher prospect.
What were not seeing here are exact numbers for Andromeda itself, only notes that it was a significant contributor. I suppose that means that even with Andromeda being cited (it was essentially the only major EA release of the quarter), a big budget could mean that its not quite as rosy as this statement makes it sound. And the games development troubles are well-known at this point, so EA is probably in no rush to start that process over again with more content.
I maintain that this isnt the best idea. That Mass Effect is too valuable and beloved a series to cryogenically freeze for the next X years, if not forever, and that if anything, Anthem itself should have been the next Mass Effect game. But I suppose I could have said that about Bungie ditching Halo for Destiny, and that seems to be working out for them. At some point, you want to do something new, and it seems pretty clear thats where BioWare is at these days.