EA Blames Zelda for Mass Effect Andromeda’s Failure

Megalith

Megalith

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Why did Mass Effect Andromeda perform so poorly? Developer Mark Darrah suggests that part of its failure could be attributed to "a really really busy window" in March 2017, which included the release of numerous RPGs, such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Darrah claims that Andromeda "did not get a fair shake" because reviewers were too harsh, despite the game being deeply flawed.

Word of mouth and many technical issues with Mass Effect Andromeda caused a ripple effect. In fact, the situation got so bad even properly implemented systems were overly scrutinized by the media, he believes. It was a busy release window with Zero Dawn, Nioh, Wildlands and others releasing with better RPG elements.
 
EA can blame themself.

All they needed to do was do basic QA. Look at the game, see that the animations aren't ready, push it back like a month at most, and they would've avoided most of the backlash the game recieved. But they mindlessly shoved it out the door in classic EA fashion.

The game has fundamental issues, of course, but the patched version that I played didn't deserve the backlash the original release got.


Anyway, that claim is ridiculous. Mass Effect is up there with Zelda as one of the most beloved gaming IPs ever, it would've sold just fine if it wasn't broken at launch.
 
They're correct, actually. Zelda came out, and everyone saw it wasn't a shit-show statement loosely dragging modern social-topics behind it under the guise of a half-finished game. Agreed, Zelda killed your boring assed mired in "Meh" game from a franchise that saw its story-arc wrap up....but they had to dip in for one more Payday...probably also to blame.

Zelda always looked like an Elf on the Shelf to me, why isn't anyone screaming about it's genitals in the news????
 
I bought the game discounted with intentions of playing it after all the DLC was released as I like complete GOTY packages. When they canceled the DLC I was waiting patiently for I lost all interest in Mass Effect, Bioware, EA, DICE, Battlefield, Star Wars, etc.

One day I'll fire it up and see how it is. Still don't care to play it just yet.
 
HeadRusch said:
They're correct, actually. Zelda came out, and everyone saw it wasn't a shit-show statement loosely dragging modern social-topics behind it under the guise of a half-finished game. Agreed, Zelda killed your boring assed mired in "Meh" game from a franchise that saw its story-arc wrap up....but they had to dip in for one more Payday...probably also to blame.

Zelda always looked like an Elf on the Shelf to me, why isn't anyone screaming about it's genitals in the news????
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Modern day social topics in a game don't bother me at all. I don't understand the outrage of displaying strong female characters in a game for example. Now shoehorning them in awkwardly to make a statement is asinine as it breaks the immersion as the story never feels right. But if they happen naturally, as you might meet someone different from you on the street while walking to work, then it breathes life into the game world.

Again there is a difference in throwing darts at a wall when writing a story and effortlessly weaving interesting characters into a tapestry.
 
Uvaman2 said:
Is it a loot-box contaminated game?
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Only if you play multiplayer.

ME3 was infested with it too, but the awesome gunplay more than made up for it IMO.

Brackle said:
As much as I love ME series, and I liked andromeda...Did they even play the fucking game? There were a lot of issues, and it felt very rushed. If anything I blame them...
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That is a recurring EA theme. Whoever pulls the trigger on releases clearly isn't a gamer themself, as they're completely oblivious to these day-1 issues.
 
brucethemoose said:
Only if you play multiplayer.

ME3 was infested with it too, but the awesome gunplay more than made up for it IMO.



That is a recurring EA theme. Whoever pulls the trigger on releases clearly isn't a gamer themself, as they're completely oblivious to these day-1 issues.
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I am sure they are making money anyway.
 
Uvaman2 said:
I am sure they are making money anyway.
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Yeah, and EA thought they cut their losses too.

But they also left alot of money on the table by dropping Andromeda's DLC. DLC is way more profitable than the main game, it would've kept the MP population higher, and I suspect it would've taken the edge off the broken initial release as people re-evaluated the patched game.
 
cageymaru said:
Modern day social topics in a game don't bother me at all. I don't understand the outrage of displaying strong female characters in a game for example. Now shoehorning them in awkwardly to make a statement is asinine as it breaks the immersion as the story never feels right. But if they happen naturally, as you might meet someone different from you on the street while walking to work, then it breathes life into the game world.

Again there is a difference in throwing darts at a wall when writing a story and effortlessly weaving interesting characters into a tapestry.
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I line strong large breasted good looking female protagonists as well . But clearly the market doesn't like ugly social justice promoting feminists in their games and the market has spoken. By not buying such games.

Of course social justice warriors don't care. They'll just bankrupt one company then move on to parasite another one. They don't care if all the employees lose their jobs and nobody buys their awful games. They will just keep whining, and blaming everything and everyone but themeselves.
 
I dunno, seems like Andromeda was on a lot more platforms than Zelda, seems to me like Andromeda should've been able to find itself a market if the quality/interest was there.
 
Snowdensjacket said:
I line strong large breasted good looking female protagonists as well . But clearly the market doesn't like ugly social justice promoting feminists in their games and the market has spoken. By not buying such games.

Of course social justice warriors don't care. They'll just bankrupt one company then move on to parasite another one. They don't care if all the employees lose their jobs and nobody buys their awful games. They will just keep whining, and blaming everything and everyone but themeselves.
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Not sure what you're on about. Female Ryder (the Andromeda protag) has the body of a goddess and armor to show it off, even moreso than FemShep. Even before the patch fixed the default preset, you could always get a very attractive face with a little customization.
 
brucethemoose said:
Not sure what you're on about. Female Ryder (the Andromeda protag) has the body of a goddess and armor to show it off, even moreso than FemShep. Even before the patch fixed the default preset, you could always get a very attractive face with a little customization.
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May be true may not be true. I decided to boycott the game the moment I got wind that it was converged by social justice nutcases. Even if it wasn't true just the stench that it might be is enough for a game to fail horribly these days.

You'd think these game companies would learn. Instead they'll just keep making games nobody wants to buy and then getting upset that nobody wants to buy their garbage. It's hilarious
 
Snowdensjacket said:
May be true may not be true. I decided to boycott the game the moment I got wind that it was converged by social justice nutcases. Even if it wasn't true just the stench that it might be is enough for a game to fail horribly these days.

You'd think these game companies would learn. Instead they'll just keep making games nobody wants to buy and then getting upset that nobody wants to buy their garbage. It's hilarious
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Maybe that's a lesson to not trust what you hear in the press, especially when it's about politics? Andromeda wasn't blatently SJW, IMO, but you're absolutely right. You shouldn't take my word on it either.

Twitch and YouTube are great ways to see for yourself. Next time you hear a game is tainted, just watch some gameplay and make your own judgement, instead of calling it before you even see the game.
 
EA is why Andromeda failed, no other reason. It was EA that ruined Bioware and rushed Andromeda to market before it was ready just like they did the ME:3.

Honestly EA is everything that is wrong with the gaming industry right now. Taking beloved titles and just slapping them together and rolling them out in an attempt to cash in rather than giving the developers the time and space they need to do what they did that made the games beloved in the first place.
 
DukenukemX said:
The only way this train of thought would work is if Zelda was so much better of a game, that it made Andromeda look terrible, which it is. A terrible game is just terrible, and nothing is going to change that.
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Depends what are you talking about, because andromeda was a good game, better than DA:I.
 
I'm now going on week 3 regarding my Mass Effect DLC not being authorized for use in the game (it used to be and suddenly, it wasn't anymore). So far they have asked me to be a PC tech (which I used to be btu I feel for those who are not tech savy and they call Tech Support), clear this, run this .exe, open COMMAND PROMPT and run such and such, send us MSInfo and DX info ... I jumped through the hoops for what wound up adding up hours of lost time on the phone, in chats and jumping the hurdles and IT's STILL NOT FIXED.

And so, now they are probably thinking I'll give them $120+ for Anthem and BF5 because they said to me how very sorry they are that I'm having problems (note the plural; I didn't mention here how the Queue for the DLC is't working for ME2 and ME3).

Regarding Andromeda, I play it often. I like not having humans to shoot at (somehow green goo doesn't offend me or if a Kett's head explodes from a rifle slug) but it is a bit repetitious (find the monolith, activate, find the main entrance, activate - repeat as needed) but the graphics, the "open world" and the handling of the Nomad, the feel/sound of the weapons are all well done.


In about a month or two Shadow of the Tomb Raider will be released and that will be the Third release they made with what actually looks like real hair for the main characters

So to sum everything up:

- it has been my recent protracted experiences with EA tech support that leads me to have to say that group is all but useless so close all the call centers and put the $$$ you save into your games so they will work and not need gamers to call Tech Support in the first place

- MEA has many good things in it, jump pack, good handling Nomad, cool Remnant Tech stuff, etc but it clearly was an unfinished, unpolished and after 2 months unsupported release and after waiting 5 years for it - were you really expecting your customers to NOT be rather disappointed with you?

Finally ...

Gimme a head with hair
Long, beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming
Streaming, flaxen, waxen

ok, I'm done for now :barefoot:
 
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_l_ said:
I'm now going on week 3 regarding my Mass Effect DLC not being authorized for use in the game (it used to be and suddenly, it wasn't anymore). So far they have asked me to play PC tech, clear this, run this, open COMMAND PROMPT and run such and such ... I jumped through the hoops for what wound up adding up hours of lost time on the phone, in chats and jumping the hurdles.

So the "Specialist Group" (a name applied to techs that actually have maybe one hour's worth of training compared to the Tech support reps that only can follow an idiot sheet on their display monitor) removes ME 1 thru 3 from my account and installs the ME Trilogy and ... the three games show back up in the Origin client but same problem; DLC is not authorized. So I call them (twice the past week) and they assure me the "Specialist Group" will address the problem and send me an email. It's been days (they say up to 72 hour response time and it's past that now) and no email and DLC not working. Wanna bet they never send me an email?

And so, now they probably are thinking I'll give them $120+ for Anthem and BF5 because they said to me how very sorry they are ....
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I had a similar problem with my DLC, they just gave me the Origin version that contained it all for free to fix the problem, it even had a few of the packs I didn't have. The whole process took maybe 20 minutes in their support chat, I thought they did a really good job.
 
EA is not even on the same planet as Nintendo. EA is a Wall Street based company that is driven purely by greed and profits. Their products, and wide spread consumer hate very clearly reflect this.
 
DukenukemX said:
The only way this train of thought would work is if Zelda was so much better of a game, that it made Andromeda look terrible, which it is. A terrible game is just terrible, and nothing is going to change that.
Click to expand...

Yup. Except that ME:A wasn't terrible. The launch was very rough with many animation and performance issues. Once that was fixed, it was a decent open world shooter / RPG. Not ground breaking and inferior to the first three games. But it was about on par with many other decent games that are open world. I'd put it roughly on par with GTAV , likely above it, but below Sleeping Dogs.
 
My biggest complaint about Andromeda was the terrible UI, by far. Whoever came up with the menu system and controls needs to never touch a computer again for anything, evar.

Let's not forget the one dev that was running his mouth/instagram pics or whatever as well. I'm sure that really helped with sales.
 
MacLeod said:
EA is why Andromeda failed, no other reason. It was EA that ruined Bioware and rushed Andromeda to market before it was ready just like they did the ME:3.

Honestly EA is everything that is wrong with the gaming industry right now. Taking beloved titles and just slapping them together and rolling them out in an attempt to cash in rather than giving the developers the time and space they need to do what they did that made the games beloved in the first place.
Click to expand...

EA is like a hollywoo studio. That is the core of the issue.

Instead of giving developers time and money to create the next Mass Effect quality franchise. They want to quickly grind out 20 sequels to cash in as fast as possible.

That tends to work for awhile. Not forever. At some point people don't want to watch/play BIG franchise movie/game 8... just like the second one but with the vfx polish/graphic engine of the seventh, yawn.

I played and loved the first Mass Effect like everyone... I enjoyed the second. Then I was done. Lots of other games to play I don't need to play the same game 20 times.

Zelda is actually a good example... of not releasing a game a year to cash in. Release one when the developer has something new to say. EA should take a lot of notes from Nintendo. Let the creatives decide what to make, don't ask them to make the same thing over again. And most important give them the time to make it right... I mean if Nintendo can push hardware out the door with only a few titles cause the rest are not quite ready yet, EA has no excuse.
 
brucethemoose said:
Maybe that's a lesson to not trust what you hear in the press, especially when it's about politics? Andromeda wasn't blatently SJW, IMO, but you're absolutely right. You shouldn't take my word on it either.
Click to expand...
It was shit on its own either way.
 
brucethemoose said:
Maybe that's a lesson to not trust what you hear in the press, especially when it's about politics? Andromeda wasn't blatently SJW, IMO, but you're absolutely right. You shouldn't take my word on it either.

Twitch and YouTube are great ways to see for yourself. Next time you hear a game is tainted, just watch some gameplay and make your own judgement, instead of calling it before you even see the game.
Click to expand...
The game wasn't openly SJW, but the prequel novel was written by an SJW. Deception was a masterpiece compared to it, and some people burned copies of that. There is no words for describing how bad it is.
 
Meeho said:
It was shit on its own either way.
Click to expand...
And you drawn that conclusion by actually playing it, or ?
Because I did play it. Finished it in 80 hours. It is basically DA:I in space, but because of the gunplay it is a far superior game than that.
 
The problem with ME:A was the writing. Glitches and bad animation I can deal with (and can ultimately be fixed) but the dialogue and overall story reads like some fan fiction I downloaded off Usenet.

Only a complete rewrite would fix the issues.
 
M76 said:
And you drawn that conclusion by actually playing it, or ?
Because I did play it. Finished it in 80 hours. It is basically DA:I in space, but because of the gunplay it is a far superior game than that.
Click to expand...
I don't like to pay for shit products. User reviews and reports were enough.
 
I enjoyed MA1-2-3 with multiple play thrus. I also enjoyed MEA - it was a fun play thru (although not quite on the level of the original series). In a year or 2 when I don't have a new game I am playing, will probably do a replay of all 4 again. I still want to see something post MA3 with Shepard rising again tho at this point it looks pretty unlikely.
 
Never could get into the ME series, always got bored with it.
 
Lolwhut? Andromeda was the weakest and most boring of the series. That's what made it fail..
 
ChadD said:
EA is like a hollywoo studio. That is the core of the issue.

Instead of giving developers time and money to create the next Mass Effect quality franchise. They want to quickly grind out 20 sequels to cash in as fast as possible.

That tends to work for awhile. Not forever. At some point people don't want to watch/play BIG franchise movie/game 8... just like the second one but with the vfx polish/graphic engine of the seventh, yawn.

I played and loved the first Mass Effect like everyone... I enjoyed the second. Then I was done. Lots of other games to play I don't need to play the same game 20 times.

Zelda is actually a good example... of not releasing a game a year to cash in. Release one when the developer has something new to say. EA should take a lot of notes from Nintendo. Let the creatives decide what to make, don't ask them to make the same thing over again. And most important give them the time to make it right... I mean if Nintendo can push hardware out the door with only a few titles cause the rest are not quite ready yet, EA has no excuse.
Click to expand...

Yeah,I understand what they're trying to do, take a game franchise that has a huge, devoted following then try to cash in on it by churning out as many half assed sequels as they can muster. Keep doing that in order to wring out every last dime from the franchise then when you've hollowed it out to the point it's a laughing stock to fans, move on to the next once beloved franchise, rinse and repeat.

Mass Effect was what it was because of Bioware and Casey Thornton, their vision, their storytelling and their ideas. You can't just hand the franchise off to a different group of second stringers and expect them to come up with the same magic. You're kinda seeing the same thing happening with the Star Wars franchise now.
 
_l_ said:
I'm now going on week 3 regarding my Mass Effect DLC not being authorized for use in the game (it used to be and suddenly, it wasn't anymore). So far they have asked me to be a PC tech (which I used to be btu I feel for those who are not tech savy and they call Tech Support), clear this, run this .exe, open COMMAND PROMPT and run such and such, send us MSInfo and DX info ... I jumped through the hoops for what wound up adding up hours of lost time on the phone, in chats and jumping the hurdles and IT's STILL NOT FIXED.

And so, now they are probably thinking I'll give them $120+ for Anthem and BF5 because they said to me how very sorry they are that I'm having problems (note the plural; I didn't mention here how the Queue for the DLC is't working for ME2 and ME3).

Regarding Andromeda, I play it often. I like not having humans to shoot at (somehow green goo doesn't offend me or if a Kett's head explodes from a rifle slug) but it is a bit repetitious (find the monolith, activate, find the main entrance, activate - repeat as needed) but the graphics, the "open world" and the handling of the Nomad, the feel/sound of the weapons are all well done.


In about a month or two Shadow of the Tomb Raider will be released and that will be the Third release they made with what actually looks like real hair for the main characters

So to sum everything up:

- it has been my recent protracted experiences with EA tech support that leads me to have to say that group is all but useless so close all the call centers and put the $$$ you save into your games so they will work and not need gamers to call Tech Support in the first place

- MEA has many good things in it, jump pack, good handling Nomad, cool Remnant Tech stuff, etc but it clearly was an unfinished, unpolished and after 2 months unsupported release and after waiting 5 years for it - were you really expecting your customers to NOT be rather disappointed with you?

Finally ...

Gimme a head with hair
Long, beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming
Streaming, flaxen, waxen

ok, I'm done for now :barefoot:
Click to expand...

Download the .dll fixer from Nexus mods. It allows you to run mods which in turn will solve your issue.
 
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Meeho said:
I don't like to pay for shit products. User reviews and reports were enough.
Click to expand...

So you don't know what you're talking about then.

It wasn't shit (once the kinks were worked out). If you like open world or elongated FPS/RPG hybrids which is all the rage these days, ME:A delivers a solid experience. It is not up to par with the original games, Deux Ex or similar. But compared to other bland open world games like GTA, it stands out as being fairly good.
 
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