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The Mass Effect Community Thread |OT2|

Z

zeroeffect

Member
lucebuce12 said:
Sales speak louder than reviews. I wouldn't lose hope until we have more news of how the game did financially.
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That's not everything. Brand perception is important too and over the years people have been saying Bioware is dipping and this game probably proves that once and for all. They've never disappointed me personally and their games barely even score anything lower than 90 on Metacritic. This is their lowest scored game ever? To fall sub 80 you have to royally screw your game up with mainstream review sites.

They'll probably get decent sales just from hardcore Bioware fans and people who already took a chance but a lot more people are going to have that bad taste in their mouth and jump off the train for any future game they make.

I think at the very least in the near future they're going to brand Bioware something else. EA Edmonton or something.
 
P

Patryn

Member
zeroeffect said:
That's not everything. Brand perception is important too and over the years people have been saying Bioware is dipping and this game probably proves that once and for all. They've never disappointed me personally and their games barely even score anything lower than 90 on Metacritic. This is their lowest scored game ever? To fall sub 80 you have to royally screw your game up with mainstream review sites.

They'll probably get decent sales just from hardcore Bioware fans and people who already took a chance but a lot more people are going to have that bad taste in their mouth and jump off the train for any future game they make.

I think at the very least in the near future they're going to brand Bioware something else. EA Edmonton or something.
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Why? This isn't even an Edmonton game?

And remember, that even after DA2, DAI had the best-selling debut of any Bioware title in the US.

You're being Chicken Little here.
 
W

wesleyshark

Banned
X-Frame said:
Wasn't the Apex HQ app supposed to be up on the iOS store by now?
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Not sure what time iOS apps usually launch, but it is today for sure. Been messing around with it on Android and it's a nice little app.

Already have a pile of loot boxes waiting for me haha
 
Z

zeroeffect

Member
Patryn said:
I think that's a tad hyperbolic. It's certainly not a good time for Bioware, but this isn't going to kill the studio.



Again, if you want an idea of what the response is going to be like, observe how Bioware reacted in the wake of DA2.
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I don't think it is honestly. Their games have not exactly been selling huge numbers for EA lately. That's why if you noticed DAI/ME:A didn't have much marketing behind them. EA realized they're just never going to be a 5 million+ selling game when Bioware does it but they'll always do very well initially with the hardcore Bioware fans. That's why they have high attach rates to DLC. Remember they went marketing crazy with ME3 and it sold great initially but then it started to flatline down fast. SWTOR started off again, great but tanked their sub numbers and today it doesn't really have a ton of subs. I still play it time to time and you can see just the few servers in the game losing massive population every year. That's why they keep taking some down. Combine all this with the constant controversy around their brand.

I think EA got tired of spending the 50-100 million marketing on their games which is probably a good thing since it leaves plenty of room to gain tons of profit. So that's definitely a positive but EA does like brand recognition and they'll look at Bioware now as a declining brand in the eyes gamers. EA is already viewed as the bad guy among a lot of gamers so it's definitely not helping. Don't know if you guys pay attention to EA's checkered past but this is exactly what happens to all their prestige studios so it's not an encouraging sign at all.

Renekton said:
To add injury to your injury, the OG ME team in Bioware is working on a competitor to Destiny 2.
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Where's this coming from?
 
P

Patryn

Member
zeroeffect said:
I don't think it is honestly. Their games have not exactly been selling huge numbers for EA lately. That's why if you noticed DAI/ME:A didn't have much marketing behind them. EA realized they're just never going to be a 5 million+ selling game when Bioware does it but they'll always do very well initially with the hardcore Bioware fans. That's why they have high attach rates to DLC. Remember they went marketing crazy with ME3 and it sold great initially but then it started to flatline down fast. SWTOR started off again, great but tanked their sub numbers and today it doesn't really have a ton of subs. I still play it time to time and you can see just the few servers in the game losing massive population every year. That's why they keep taking some down.

I think EA got tired of spending the 50-100 million marketing on their games which is probably a good thing since it leaves plenty of room to gain tons of profit. So that's definitely a positive but EA does like brand recognition and they'll look at Bioware now as a declining brand in the eyes gamers. EA is already viewed as the bad guy among a lot of gamers so it's definitely not helping. Don't know if you guys pay attention to EA's checkered past but this is exactly what happens to all their prestige studios so it's not an encouraging sign at all.
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From what I've seen, Dragon Age Inquisition sold over 5 million copies.
 
B

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Patryn said:
Again, if you want an idea of what the response is going to be like, observe how Bioware reacted in the wake of DA2.
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What was their reaction? I never really cared for DA, so I never payed attention other than the game being terrible all around.
 
P

Patryn

Member
The Artisan said:
WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?
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75 on PS4.

77 on XBox One.

78 on PC.

Bisnic said:
What was their reaction? I never really cared for DA, so I never payed attention other than the game being terrible all around.
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They definitely did not apologize for the game. When they started unveiling their first DLC, they talked about areas that they would improve upon over the base game.

Basically, don't expect them to throw the game under the bus. They don't get negative about their own games. I'm guessing they'll go quiet for a while, except to talk about patches. When/If they do a single-player DLC, expect them to talk about how it avoids some of weaknesses of the base game but in a way that doesn't necessarily disparage.

Then expect a lot of talk about what they learned when they show off their next game.
 
Z

zeroeffect

Member
Patryn said:
From what I've seen, Dragon Age Inquisition sold over 5 million copies.
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Based on what? They never released numbers. You have to look past corporate talk. It might've done initially great but never sustained those numbers. I remember DAI going on sale 2 weeks after it released and then constantly staying up for sale. I remember the big Amazon sale on it. Think it was $30 2 weeks past release. EA/Bioware only get half the numbers off retail so $15 each for them?

You can look at DAO's history and see it sustained strong sales through the entire life. You have to also consider the cost DAI had compared to DAO. It no doubt had much bigger budget behind it. Bioware was small when they were developing DAO. It's entirely possible they never hit their projections with DAI. If they did, they would've been bragging to shareholders about it. Bioware's strength always seems to be high numbers at the start then they fall off fast. Probably Bioware fans like us eating it up which is why you have those big DLC attach rates. Another reason they stopped going high on marketing. They kinda just gave up because they know who's going to buy the game.
 
D

Doodis

Member
For those playing the trial on Xbox - how the hell do I switch weapons in multiplayer? Pressing the view button doesn't bring up the same selection screen as in single player.
 
T

The Artisan

Member
Bisnic said:
Most probably due to troubled development. There was a lot of signs during these last years with lack of gameplay videos, or any sort of details really.
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oh come on. Me3 had troubled development too but it still got the acclaim ME gets. there must be something else going on here
 
Z

zeroeffect

Member
lucebuce12 said:
Any reports so far on the performance on the base ps4?
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Seemed to have some technical issues like slowdown in areas and stuff. Think digital foundry did a performance video on it if you want to watch. I'm in the same boat instead of getting it on PC like the fool I am.
 
SliChillax

SliChillax

Member
The Artisan said:
oh come on. Me3 had troubled development too but it still got the acclaim ME gets. there must be something else going on here
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I'm blaming it on the lack of polish. We as Mass Effect fans can ignore the horrible animations and bugs but for other people it's unacceptable for a AAA game to release in that state in 2017 and they're right. Bioware needs to kick itself in the ass and wake the fuck up, people don't expect just a good story and characters nowadays. You have no idea how much the animation thrashing is going to hurt the sales of this game. I have many friends who aren't into gaming and they've never heard of Mass Effect before but when I casually mentioned that I couldn't wait for Andromeda to come out they were like, "isn't that the game with the horrible graphics and animations"? Again, I don't wanna start a discussion about graphics and animations because I love this franchise too much that I can look past it, but other people wont tolerate that and I honestly can't blame them.
 
X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
WhoDey Beerman said:
Ghost Recon Wildlands has a 74 and MEA is sitting at 75???-!!! WTF. More proof that this game/genre/studio are being judged on a different scale.

P.S. I like Wildlands!
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...what.

Your evidence being? Just that there are scores being lower than you expected?
 
E

emag

Member
The Artisan said:
oh come on. Me3 had troubled development too but it still got the acclaim ME gets. there must be something else going on here
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It's just a bad game filled with grinding, empty worlds, and shallow fetch quests to check boxes for those fans who kept complaining about the loss of "RPG" elements in ME2.

JohnnyFootball said:
what?

the game may have been rushed in the end, but that doesn't point to "troubled" development.
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ME3's development issues are well documented. It was initially rushed leading to lots of cut content on Palaven and Thessia that destroyed the mid-game storytelling, but was pushed back for polishing and marketing. Jaavik was removed from the game to sell as DLC. Writers didn't talk to each other. The multiplayer was initially a separate, stand-alone competitive deathmatch FPS that was rebooted and retooled into the co-op TPS add-on we now know.
 
M

Man Called Aerodynamics

Member
What I'm seeing is mixed reviews with a heavy helping of "This may be for big fans only." Which is a shame because it would be nice to have a new game that shines so brightly it brings new people into the fold. But at the same time, I am a big ME fan, so I know I'm going to have my fun with this regardless of what reviewers think.
 
M

MisterShine

Member
Very unfortunate scores but honestly Mass Effect and other series I love, I just have to judge myself. EA's excellent access program let me try it for ten hours and I was happy with what I saw. I encourage everyone to give it a go for themselves.
 
R

Real Hero

Member
Man Called Aerodynamics said:
What I'm seeing is mixed reviews with a heavy helping of "This may be for big fans only." Which is a shame because it would be nice to have a new game that shines so brightly it brings new people into the fold. But at the same time, I am a big ME fan, so I know I'm going to have my fun with this regardless of what reviewers think.
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How do you know that before playing it? I love the entire trilogy and everything about this games just annoys me
 
S

Scrotum Phillips

Member
Just extremely bummed right now. Even through the extremely lackluster lead up to this release, I still remained hopeful. But when they cancelled the announced MP beta, that was my first time I allowed that doubt to sink in that this development sounds "rocky." Also, that MP beta questionnaire was ridiculous, hah, I can't believe it was all for nothing.

Still looking forward to playing this tomorrow, but everything points to this game being "rushed out" which seems absurd given it has been 5 years since ME3.
 
Z

zeroeffect

Member
Scrotum Phillips said:
Just extremely bummed right now. Even through the extremely lackluster lead up to this release, I still remained hopeful. But when they cancelled the announced MP beta, that was my first time I allowed that doubt to sink in that this development sounds "rocky." Also, that MP beta questionnaire was ridiculous, hah, I can't believe it was all for nothing.

Still looking forward to playing this tomorrow, but everything points to this game being "rushed out" which seems absurd given it has been 5 years since ME3.
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Based on the reviews I've read, extended time wouldn't really help this game much. Unless they extended it by another year or something. EA said awhile back if ME:A needs more time and we think it can improve the game we'll delay it. Now we know why they didn't delay it. They would've needed to completely rewrite it or something like that. Always red flags when your lead writer leaves in the middle of development. This game is shaping up to be possibly the biggest disappointment I can remember since the initial release of Diablo 3 for me. At least that game did sort itself out eventually.

Whatever they're doing with the Destiny killer IP it better be fucking amazing. If it's like Destiny with trademark Bioware cinematics, story, characterization similar to SWTOR with good writing I'm all over it.
 
dr_rus

dr_rus

Member
WhoDey Beerman said:
Also, emotional investment in a studio isn't a bad thing, there are real people behind these "works of art painting their vision", so am I a called a "consumerist" because i want those people to succeed or because i accept their vision as their own, or is a "consumerist" someone who views games as commodities and expects the artist to conform . Thats a grey area for endless argument (I do not wish to engage on).
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Why would you be emotionally invested in a company which haven't produced anything good yet though (BW Montreal is a new studio after all)? In any case, when you can't take critic of something which you have no relation to whatsoever (meaning that you haven't been working on the game yourself) with a cool head you're doing something wrong. I don't think that MEA threads in gaming are "toxic", I think that Bioware had a lot to prove about themselves and their current ability to produce titles like ME1 or KoTOR, and since they basically failed at that with MEA they are getting the full amount of people's disappointment. This is exactly how things should be with any such title or company, nothing "toxic" about it.

What I find amusing is the fact that some people are willing to ignore all the issues MEA have just because they loved ME2 or ME3 or something. I mean, sure, you can enjoy the game - I'm enjoying Mafia 3 right for example which has 62% MC average - but don't be blind to the apparent issues it has. Because when you as a player ignore these issues you end up with MEA eventually - as Bioware somewhat ignored the issues with Walter's writing in ME3 and MMOG like gameplay in DAI (to name a few) instead of actually listening to players feedback on these. So you are doing the game and the brand (or any product really) a disservice if you avoid criticism just because you like it.

i-fV3WqFk-2100x20000.jpg
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Renekton said:
Don't worry about it haha, he is emotionally invested in Nvidia.
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Nobody's perfect. Also - no, I'm not -) If you'd be able to read Russian I would show you some of recent beatings NV got from me due to how they handle some things with drivers and h/w.
 
L

lucebuce12

Member
Son Of Sparda said:
luce, I love how not only we are both interested in similar games, but both of us are hunting down impressions on OG PS4 versions of these games. First Yakuza 6 and now this, hahaha.
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Kindred spirits, kyudai!


Also I've always meant to ask. Is the Son of Sparda supposed to be Dante or Vergil (or both)?
 
L

lucebuce12

Member
ChemicalCutthroat said:
Nice! It has an install link but I can't find it on the play store in the US right now. So maybe not yet available? Still looks fun, sorta like Destiny's App.
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They said they plan on making it available for most if not all countries by the end of 20th March (today).

Currently I think it's just Canada and a few other countries.
 
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