BioWare is Dead. A Rant.

BioWare as we knew the studio is dead and gone, so what happens in the future? What could replace them? And what will their legacy be?
The Patreon if you'd like to buy me a beer/coffee - www.patreon.com/NorthernExile

[@blackmage471]

BioWare died in 2007 the moment EA bought the studio.

[@ahoyforsenchou7288]

Based and true.

[@EyesOfGehenna]

Just for reference: Dragon Age Origins was released in 2009.

[@linker27]

Mass effect trilogy?😂

[@danielallen4450]

You can’t blame EA for the company moving away from their RPG roots. Sure, you can blame them for rushed cycles, but EA aren’t just some horrible Devil Bioware sold their soul to.

[@aerfwefd7334]

@@EyesOfGehenna Okay, and? Publishers don't typically interfere with ongoing projects when they acquire a studio, save to cancel ones which are clearly poised for failure. This is true even of EA. Look at every title that started *after* EA acquired Bioware to get a better picture of the soulless trend chasing that followed.

[@capt_c2725]

Today's Bioware isn't the same Bioware we all loved from the past.

[@Exigentable]

Bioware has been dead for over 10 years. Anyone who hung on after Andromeda I have no sympathy for.

[@dars5229]

Bioware died for me when they hyped Andromeda, promised DLC, then pulled the plug and told us "Pre-order Anthem, suckers!"

[@planescaped]

Anthem+Andromeda was when they actually died. They're just a corpse being puppetted about by EA now for brand recognition and customer loyalty that doesn't exist anymore.

[@mercb3ast]

They died when EA bought them. Mass Effect 2 was the writing on the wall. They gutted the RPG mechanics from ME1, and replaced them with a gears of war lite shooter. Sure ME2 was "good" but it wasn't what Mass Effect 1 had promised, and it wasn't what Bioware did as a game developer the previous decade. Mass Effect 3 back tracked SLIGHTLY on some of the game mechanics they ripped out of the game, but the ending was an abortion. Pretty much every game since ME3, which I like A LOT more than ME2 despite the terrible ending, has been spiraling the toilet.

[@rh906]

@@mercb3ast ME3 felt like the Gears of Wars clone. The male Shepard even runs like the big brute.

[@fluffskunk]

The multiplayer looter-shooter genre is a serial killer of studios and IPs.

[@Rpground]

Really? Bioware died for me when Dragon Age 2 happened.

[@vladimirpugh194]

F*ck me, I'm not going to get DA:Veilguard. It looks like shit and my time on this planet is limited, it's up to a company to convince me to spend my money on them

[@michaelh878]

It will likely be on gamepass on day 1 so i'll give it a shot if I am still subscribed.

[@Spr1ggan87]

@@michaelh878 This is why gpass is shit, shit games deserve to fail, gpass provides a safety net where they can hide behind download numbers even if it's people playing 5 minutes then turning off like with Shitfield.

[@khatack]

Fuck the money, the time you lose on garbage games is far more valuable than your money. That's literally a part of your life that you just lose without getting anything worthwhile in return.

[@nonyabisness6306]

brother, you're about 15 years late.

[@Pers0n97]

Basically yeah.

[@ahoyforsenchou7288]

Almost 20.

[@H41030v3rki110ny0u]

@@ahoyforsenchou7288 idk man, Mass Effect 2 was in 2010.. 15-20 is close enough though

[@Archangelm127]

It's all been downhill since Throne of Bhaal.

[@zephyr8072]

Bioware died in 2012. You’re over a decade late, sport.

[@distantthunder12ck55]

Agreed, ME3 the last decent game from them. Modern BioWare are just activists. I look to games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring and will laugh at how pathetic BioWare have become. Though it is sad since I once loved their games going back to Knights of the Old Republic.

[@KidoKatsuragi]

This. Right fucking this. Bioware died long ago.

[@skrotosd]

you're right but we still didn't mourn

[@DoodsUnited]

Guess some people only NOW just discovered the corpse through the smell, dood. Better late than never.

[@k.constantine]

2010 really, ME3 was dog water.

[@Exdeathmore]

Mass Effect 3 was the moment I realized something was wrong with the video game industry when all the articles calling gamers entitled for complaining about the ending came out

[@geordiejones5618]

The more time passes the more this game pisses me off. I sided with Cerberus at the end of my first ME2 playthrough bc I was doing an evil run and they COMPLETELY ignored evil options. Imagine if in ME3 there were 3 options for the campaign, which intersect at major narrative events: side with the Council, side with Cerberus, or side with yourself as a rogue Spectre. The Council gives you access to the most allies and resources, but indoctrination is a certainty and you have to balance the needs of everyone and yourself. Cerberus gives you access to ridiculous abilities and ways to stop indoctrination, but you're limited in your allies and resources. Rogue Spectre is the middle ground where you have some access to resources and allies, more flexibility in who you work with, and your indoctrination is up in the air. It should have been a race against the clock where you will most likely lose no matter what, and you're either trying to preserve or ensure the next cycle can fight better. It should have been CRAZY hard to beat the Reapers, based on a lot of prior decisions you make. The marketing for ME3 was criminally misleading and I STILL see fans defend that bullshit. The amount of people who spend money on the DLC and enjoyed it just made me hate the fanbase because they gave Bioware an excuse to ignore the ROLE PLAYING in an action RPG.

[@captainthunderbolt7541]

The original promise of Mass Effect was that your choices mattered - and ultimately they didn't. It was a bait and switch on a grand scale!

[@Supercohboy]

I knew something was wrong from a very young age thanks to EA and Activision. They killed off so many good studios by buying them up and gutting them. Some of my childhood favorites were crafted by excellent devs who just got thrown out onto the street because "muh profit margarine mmmmm", with many never returning to work on video games ever again. Ugh, it sucks.

[@torikazuki8701]

@@geordiejones5618 If I weren't so cynical, I would be amazed at how many younger players don't even know that one of the biggest selling points when ME1 came out, was that 'YOUR CHOICES MATTERED', that your decisions would be carried over from game to game. The entire core meaning of a 'Roleplaying Game' (Where you tell your OWN story THROUGH the medium of the created world) has been lost. That main selling point for Mass Effect got rolled back so extremely that by the third game you could TURN OFF the 'roleplaying' option. That should have been as big of an issue as the ending was. It's like being able to turn off driving in a driving game, or being able to turn off playing football in a football game.

[@Captain-Thievius]

You have Colin Moriarty to thank for creating the "entitlement" narrative that Game Journos and Media Shills have been using ever since the Mass Effect 3 ending debacle. How and why anyone would ever forgive and forget what Colin did is beyond me.

[@scottlarmore5038]

Fear for BioWare’s future? What future? They died. They died shortly after EA bought them. They ain’t got no future, Jack!

[@Ally5141]

It's like 5 stages of grief, they still didn't hit the acceptance stage.

[@anemoneyas]

bioware has been in decline since EA bought them. DA:O was mostly done before this happened so it was still solid. Mass Effect 2 was pretty good but still revealed a massive shift in priorities away from what made the first game special. They started losing the people responsible for interesting overarching plot lines and world building after ME. Took a bit longer for the character writers to leave.

[@nonyabisness6306]

The people that made DA:O left the company before it was released.

[@torikazuki8701]

As I wrote here elsewhere, ME2 had 'better' gameplay and well-written characters. Everything else was a step down from ME1 and the structure of ME2 practically guaranteed ME3's failure (as a piece of art), no matter what. Not only was ME2 clearly written by someone who hated the 1st game (Killing your PC and destroying the Ship, while making the Illusive Man the effective protagonist & you his toady, was a subtle way of making that point.) The entire story did not advance the main plot one iota. Forcing ME3 to cover more ground, when it should have been focused solely on the final push to stop or defeat the Reapers.

[@DickDickstein]

@@torikazuki8701 All true of course. I absolutely adored ME2 though as a game. Miranda's butt. Hidey hole. The combat was legit fun I thought. I really liked it. ME3 combat was a bit better overall I'd say, but the trilogy endings for most of the characters were always going to be a disappointment no matter what they did. I wasn't mad about ME3's ending after finishing the game because it was all the characters I cared about anyways. "Reapers" are whatever. I was definitely around on GFAQs at the time, and watched the debates for months, and just wasn't that fussed about the "ending". Dragon Age 2 was disliked by most of us. That was the start of it all. Character work was still good, but the rest of the game was awful, and you could already tell that they were just pumping this game out ASAP with how little effort they made in the world design, and side-quests. Still...it did OK. Then we get to the FABLE III era I like to call it. Games full of never ending fetch quests, trying to go "open world". Inquisition is a "passable" game from a technical standpoint, but it has tons of ideas that are pointless, or just there to pad some time to the game. STory/characters were "meh inconsistent". STill some good stuff in there, but fewer and far between. Then I played ME: Andromeda, and I figured out why I didn't like Inquisition that much. The map made the game extra tedious, and made it so you had to walk excessively out of the way to get to certain areas. Places that you are supposed to get to, but you are required to walk all the way around a giant mountain range just to find the other side a tiny trail that you probably missed too. These games leave you with a supreme lack of story telling instances due to the less linear worlds, amount of pointless fetch quests, and "flavor quests" that are essentially just more fetch quests. The MMO formula. Busy WORK. Games that feel like work, are not fun.

[@charles52able1]

Im so sorry about your grandfather. Dimentia is one of the cruelist ways to die. You lose them before they're dead and that memory is haunting. I lost my mother two years ago the same way.

[@Counterbalance_]

This is a very accurate way to describe it. Losing my grandmother to it was devastating to me.

[@Wendel_85]

Pretty much a eulogy of our formative years in gaming. I haven't given up hope we'll feel those same thrills again, I've just given up on the people that provided us those thrills in the first place.

[@skrotosd]

personally, From Software and Larian are my new "people"

[@Zyzzyyx]

Those people are long gone though.

[@Nodux359]

Just a branding and a collection of IPs still remain from the former RP-king Bioware.

[@ravenRedwake]

I don’t buy EA, Activision or Ubisoft games unless they are heavily discounted and I don’t have to sign up for something

[@desertfish74]

Last month, I've actually blocked all of those big publishers on steam (and 1 or 2 others such as Blizzard as well). The list of games shown now is better because of it. Nothing of value is lost

[@ahoyforsenchou7288]

Sailing the seas is literally the upstanding moral choice in current year. Degenerate and terrible companies should be punished.

[@Chareidos]

You should give them NO MONEY! Get some grip on your life and give smaller games a chance instead of wasting time and money in to AAA Companies!

[@charliecooper7655]

Oh man that music. Brings back so many good memories.

[@skrotosd]

if i put that music in loop i can probably stay concentrate on a task for 8 hours straight

[@Pers0n97]

The only problem with players is the fact that they got attached to a company name and don't realize a company is just a group of individuals. If these individuals are replaced by others, chance are the quality of the content you can expect from them won't be the same. Some time it gets better, but most of the time it gets worse, and in this day and age of farleft supremacy and DEI mendates, it always gets way, WAY worse. And yet people keep on getting hyped by a name, even when its very clear that the people behind that name got entirely replaced by untalented hacks that hate them, the people they replaced and the game these people made in the past.

[@planescaped]

Yeah, the people who made Bioware what it is have long since left the company.

[@chromesucks5299]

'in this day and age of farleft supremacy and DEI mendates' Yeah keep your conspiracy bs aside, bad games having been coming out for decades, Dragon age 2 was shit 10+ years ago, was there 'far left supremacy and DEI' back then? No its corporate culture and not listening to the voices of the employees vs what shareholders/ Execs want.

[@insomnolant6043]

Exactly right. Well said.

[@panzershreck8077]

​@chromesucks5299 And it so happens that corporations are more inclined to cooperate with consultation groups like sweet baby inc that are all about "diversifying" in game narratives, etc. Just look at activisions and blizzards chart for the requirements on whether or not a character has enough diverse racial features and disabilities lol. Corporations are always gonna be evil and side on the place that makes them money. It just so happens that they side with a certain group of people that hate the straight white male. Moral of the story? Sail the high seas for all triple A games.

[@Pers0n97]

@@chromesucks5299 My guy, this isn't 2016 anymore. Trying to pretend this is not happening doesn't work and just make you look like a dishonest prick.

[@Brockxz]

Bioware died with EA buying them. Highest point was DAO and ME1, after that it was slow downfall. Even ME2 already had so many wrong things (streamlining things, going for that action packed third person shooter crowd). In that ME2 development time they already lost so many key persons that made Bioware what it was and it shows in that game.

[@Kross415]

The closer to OG BioWare in style is Owlcat by far. Pathfinder Kingmaker was the first time I felt I was playing BG1-2 all over again, not even POE could do that for me. I like Larian games (DOS-DOS2-BG3. Most people don't even know they have more games than that) but I don't think they're as good as people claim, I don't really like their stories or their companions that much. Their success with BG3 comes from their insanse budget for a CRPG appealing to ''normies'' the D&D fans, the BG name, their marketing and because they make what they love and they don't actively go against their customers. They made a lot of things right and they got lucky to top it off. They're a good studio but they have to release a lot more games to be at the lvl BioWare was at their golden age. I can't think of a single studio ,past or present, that has released has much quality games as BioWare. It's a real shame seeing them end like this.

[@skrotosd]

man i feel you on Larian writing but they get a pass for gameplay, map and encounter design, IMHO.

[@Kross415]

@@skrotosd Yeah like I said, they did a lot of things right with BG3, the multiple ways of resolving quests or aproaching combat are among those things.

[@Whanevs]

Blizard comes to mind. These guys created many ganres as we know them today.

[@Kross415]

@@Whanevs I agree, old Blizz was the only one that came to mind as 2nd place when I wrote the comment.

[@michaelh878]

@@Whanevs Copied and perhaps perfected. They never did anything original.

[@torikazuki8701]

Also, the biggest indicator that behind the Bioware Curtain, ME3 was considered a failure, was the fact that the creators of Bioware all left the studio they created, shortly after its release. Even months before that, such a move would have been almost unthinkable.

[@nima266]

It's honestly heartbreaking to see this thing I once loved change into something I cant even recognize anymore.

[@robrick9361]

The end really started with Mass Effect 2. I understand people enjoy it but if you compare how ambitious the first game was and how dumbed down the second game is, it's apparent they started declining with the sequel.

[@countfrackula6707]

Yea? They've been dead for like, 14 years or so now. What rock have you been under? EA did to them what the Reapers did to the Protheans - turned them into mindless, soulless husks that bear zero resemblance to their former selves.

[@Rpground]

Dude, Bioware has been dead since Dragon Age Origins. That was the last good Bioware game ever made.

[@randalthor6872]

Yea I do hate having to come to terms with this, but Bioware is indeed dead. They truly died during Mass Effect 3's development. That's when the good writers quit and the radical activists came in to replace them.

[@Ally5141]

ME5 is gonna be the final nail in the coffin of the series. Andromeda was bad ME game but at least you could distance yourself from it as a fan of og trilogy. With ME5 seemingly being continuation of og trilogy it's gonna be different.

[@realtalunkarku]

veilguards going to suck

[@barefootwalk1798]

Spiders has been trying to become ME era Bioware for years now. With a bit of luck they finally manage to go the final mile to get rid of the jank and achieve that goal with Greedfall 2.

[@rafterman5072]

Spiders is terrible.

[@DarkKnightCuron]

LIKES FOR THE LIKE GOD; COMMENTS FOR THE COMMENT THRONE! (Supposedly, they were working on another Mass Effect game, but I'm super skeptical)

[@briancalanchie1527]

Dating myself here, but Baldur's Gate (1 and 2) and Neverwinter Nights were very enjoyable. A different era.

[@ionjca09]

To bad you don't know the best game they've created. It's called JADE EMPIRE.

[@ahoyforsenchou7288]

But he mentioned Jade Empire. Massive stretch to call it better than Baldur's Gate or KotoR though.

[@clockworkman8210]

kotor was better

[@johnnii]

Larian Studios is basically OG Bioware in craft.

[@Ravix0fFourHorn]

problem with Larian is, most people remember Baldurs Gate 3 not for its gameplay and story but for all the coomer stuff. This my friend isnt good.

[@nonyabisness6306]

They're really not. They've made very few good games and one of them is just their older one with a D&D skin. Whereas Obsidian put out a lot more stuff that's actually close to older Bioware titles.

[@MidlifeCrisisJoe]

They've already been subverted. Act 3 of BG3 is crap compared to acts 1 and 2, and its the wokest part of the game. It's basically the product of the influence of all the new staff brought on as they hired up during the game's development, and it shows every trend that ruined BioWare both in poor design and political nonsense ruining story telling.

[@ewjiml]

@@Ravix0fFourHornUnmm no. No one thinks BG3 will be coomer material in the future. It’s just a damn good RPG that is in very, very short supply in these “modern” times.

[@sewnmind1786]

​@@ewjimlI love BH3 but lets be honest with ourselves; there is literally get laid speedrun category, I get hit up at least three times before the end of act 1, you can shag a bear for god's sake. There is some coomer energy in there its just easy enough to ignore if you're not into it. Thank god.

[@BlackUdon]

A single point of disagreement, EA forced Bioware to bite hard on DICE's Frostbite. The same engine in ME Andromeda. The engine that wasn't really meant for what they were aiming in either of those games, whereas DICE made it for FPS.

[@chromesucks5299]

This EA wanted to cut costs for not having to license some other game engine so they told them to use DICE's frostbite one

[@Delpino666]

Western game development is dead in general. There are some survivors like Larian but I have just realised that basically all of my videogame purchases from the last few years are exclusively Japanese games

[@dany-ps2my]

Andromeda was the biggest pieces of garbage especially considering the hype , at least it taught me to never ever pre order a game again

[@ewjiml]

My man. Larian Studios is BioWare. BioWare died after Dragon Age: Inquisition and even that game, I hated.

[@Rikalonius]

While the ending was crap on ME3. And it was. It was rushed by EA. Other than that, however, the game wasn't terribly bad. Great in some places. I wasn't a huge fan of the omni-blade, I thought that stretch credulity for the world, but I could live with it. It leaned into to much on making the combat for the multiplayer so they could sell loot boxes, but overall, an 8/10 up until you reach London. After that, Bioware crested the hill and like the Sisyphean rock, plummeted right down into the pit with the rest of the companies EA destroyed like Maxis, Pandemic, and Mythic.

[@MechbossBoogie]

I can't speak to the music here, I never played those games, but it's the same feeling I had when I first heard the music in Orgrimmar. It was epic. Now it only brings memories of a game I'll never play again and a feeling I'll never have again.

[@madrox231]

I’m actually not a BioWare fan, I’ve tried several of the games and they don’t really stick with me. However I went through the same thing with square soft back in the early 00s. They aren’t anything like they were in the 90s and that really really sucks. And I also know tons of BioWare fans, even as a person on the outside kind of. I’m like yeah I’ve seen this before, it sucks a whole lot. If BioWare ends up anything like square they’ll never be good again. It’s a done deal. Pour one out for one of the greats.

[@skrim6398]

Mass effect 2 was a mess, 3 was a disaster, anthem was a predictable failure and andromeda was EA sucking what money was left in the IP out of it by undermining the urgency of the original trilogy.

[@rafterman5072]

So, you just don’t like Mass Effect then? Mass Effect 2 is arguably their best game and Mass Effect 3 is also pretty good.

[@skrim6398]

@rafterman5072 Mass effect 2 was a pointless narrative detour but it did refine the gameplay. 3 was just gears of war and that ending undermines the entire series in retrospect. 1 is overall the best entry in terms of narrative and tone, introducing an interesting new universe while offering decent gameplay. The very concept of there being a colonyship in Andromeda clashes with the lore of the original trilogy and undermines the urgency of the reaper genocide, it's like the writers acknowledge how bad they messed up with mass effect 3 and their only solution was to retcon and literally move the story to annother galaxy.

[@Brockxz]

@@rafterman5072 so you are the reason Bioware died if you think ME2 is better game than ME1.

[@johnbendheim8163]

If you miss BioWare and haven't played Baldur's Gate 3 yet, then you've missed the resurrection of the greatest RPG series of all time and the sequel to the game series that saved the RPG genre back in the late nineties. Well it saved it again in 2023! Everyone thank Larian studios and all hail Bioware's successor!

[@IPlayVideoGamesAndNothingElse]

Just accept gaming is dead. 90% of games are just for profit or activism. Only 10% are passion like the old days of the 90’s.

[@torikazuki8701]

Now now, that applied to the 80's as well (as did the commercialism). It's just that resources were so limited, the vision had to be limited as well. Though there were amazing exceptions. 1986's 'Starflight' was a fantastic open-world adventure game, it was just graphically primitive (even for the time.)

[@PowerofRock24]

Sturgeon's Law. 90% of everything is shit. Ignore it and live for that 10%.

[@dingickso4098]

A new video game market crash will be coming soon.

[@Jesse-h6r]

That 10% is enough

[@donquixote2072]

Veilguard looks goofy. If you thought the writing in DA:2 was bad, prepare yourself for a tsunami of stupid! My only hope that people with true creative freedom and integrity can create compelling new games based off of the blueprints that old school Bioware left us.

[@ansaz14]

I had forgotten that Anthem exists

[@Godskrieg]

The fact they changed the name from Dreadwolf to Veilguard alone shows me this game probably had a turbulent development. I'm expecting nothing, this isn't BioWare, it's a bad sequel.

[@huddleaw]

I think it's more of an industry issue than a political issue. Politics just stick out and tend to be a lightning rod.

[@clockworkman8210]

i disagree, the whole industry is woke politically and the products are suffering because the focus is on DEI instead of the game. the devs arent as skilled anymore because of quotas and you can see it in the products, older devs get laid off and replaced by woke snowflakes with pronouns. there is other stuff like greed, live service and games being unfinished. but sweet baby inc has an effect industry wide, it does have a big impact on games

[@huddleaw]

@@clockworkman8210 meh, I think that's the way people choose to look at what's happening. They need someone to blame and SJWs are the new scapegoats. Don't get me wrong, it's still an issue but it's not the big bad issue plaguing the gaming industry. I think the real problem is company bloat issues with too many cooks in the kitchen and the marketing department is telling the devs what to do (that's why woke stuff makes it into the game BTW because of the marketing department). People just think it's boaring to have that opinion and more fun to make fun of woke libtards.

[@MidlifeCrisisJoe]

Did a Slowpoke make this video? BioWare's been dead for a decade now. Dragon Age 2 was probably the actual specific moment, but enough of ME3 was decent apart from the ending that we can just say ME3 was the point.

[@Captain-Thievius]

Bioware died the second they whored themselves out to EA. It took the utter failure of the Mass Effect 3 ending for most to realize that. (Yes "ending", as in singular. Because red, blue, and green explosions don't count as multiple endings.)

[@mystifiedd6043]

American business model, get loans to buy a competitor that is making a superior product, then asset strip mine it and milk the brand name until it's worthless.

[@LaughingMan_d8D]

Bioware died for me at ME3, the only game where I ever felt betrayal. I used, Andromeda and Anthem as proof of their death to others who didn't believe me.

[@xicci4760]

When you hear someone saying "It's not EA's fault" you know the devs fucked up very very hard. Sad for the franchise and the fans.

[@milesludi2053]

Playing right now the Mass Effect trilogy for the first time… knowing that, between Andromeda and the next Mass Effect, BioWare could completely ruin the legacy these games is just sad…

[@Spawnfreak]

I hold the position that Mass Effect was the best of the trilogy, and the start of BioWares downfall began with Mass Effect 2. We just didn’t see it at the time. Mass Effect 2 was the game that turned a BioWare RPG into an EA shooter. We should have seen the signs, but we failed.

[@thepainsight]

I still don't think Bioware has topped Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.

[@Onishiro]

Lorerunner and MrBTongue were the two who nailed Mass Effect 3 the best, especially when it comes to the ending. I wish the latter still put out content but it was nice to see Lore get a shoutout. To me, ME3 was the death knell for the series when it came to competent writing.

[@lance7135]

Sad to say, but they and many other large studios that we grew up with have all gone down a very self-destructive path. The people that are there now are not the ones who made the great games of the past. Simply put, we are in a unique position to tell our own stories, make our own games, forge our own paths in all of this. We can sit and hope that they find their way... or we can light that way forward, and those who wish to follow will do so.

[@ravenRedwake]

Mass effect 1 had the best ending. I still watch that cutscene where Shepard has that shit-eating grin. “Suicide Mission” by Jack Wall in Mass Effect 2 is one of my favorite videogame soundtracks up there with One Final Effort from Halo 3 (which that had a banger ending, I thought Chief was going to die right up to the last minute) and 117 from Halo 4, and Armored Prayer from Gears of War 2 (that fucking speech Prescot does though is fucking awesome)

[@gregbirger5810]

BioWare is long since a shambling corpse. And this is largely true of the broader gaming industry. Games were once made by nerds/gamers who loved the craft, wanted to create a brilliant piece of entertainment to push the boundaries of what was possible and immerse players in a believable slice of other worlds. Those days are long gone. All we have left are shambling DEI husks that mechanically go through the motions of creativity, but with no soul or spark whatsoever. At least as far as triple-AAA studios are involved. There are, of course, the exceptionally rare gems among the manure, and brilliant individuals and small teams making fantastic content, but the goliaths have metastasised into caricatures of what they once were.

[@ahoyforsenchou7288]

Haven't paid attention to this studio since after Neverwinter Nights and KotoR. Jade Empire was also pretty based, but for me it stops there. Dragon Age was a huge dud to me compared to their old D&D games like Baldur's Gate and Icewind, and I just never cared about Mass Effect. They really seem to have taken a nosedive in recent years though. Like an Ubisoft-level nosedive.

[@BlindxSide]

It really sucks what EA does to what were once amazing and incredible games and game studios. I've never played a BioWare game, but these sentiments are shared all across the gaming space. Video game writing and development in general for a large part has taken a massive down turn within the last decade. Games and companies I loved are now a shell of their former selves.

[@SIlverbullet108]

I agree, sadly that coming dragon age game is going to be the final nail in the coffin. It looks just terrible and completely tone deaf.

[@TBoneTony]

We found out this back in 2012 after they failed to understand the audience's concerns about Mass Effect 3. It was at this point when I believed the entire laziness of Game Developers started and how they started to blame the fans when the story they started didn't live up to the scope of the original promised.

[@VindensSaga]

Bioware is dead and so is the Blizzard I loved as a child. It is sad but so is life.

[@nifftbatuff676]

Bioware died more than 10 years ago, with the indie cRPG renaissance.

[@wulfbak]

It actually *is* EA's fault, to a certain degree. I've seen them take game series, meddle in the production, have the studios create a game that is far-removed from what made the series beloved (Mass Effect Andromeda, Ultima VII and IX, the latter Command and Conquers, SSX On Tour) and watch the game get rejected by fans. Rather than realize their meddling made a shitty game, they say, "Oh well, there's no market for single-player RPGs, extreme sports, RTS games" or whatever, so let's do more live service games.

[@ThePinstripedMan]

Great point about honing your skills and eventually creating your own games that aren't terrible. At this point, the only way we get anything approaching the kind of games that came out in the 2000-2010 era, is by mastering the needed tools. and making them ourselves.

[@JonborgVA]

this is a really good video, I'm surprised you don't have more subs

[@kkplx]

Bioware died more than a decade ago.

[@beskararmor7966]

It will take the kids who are in high school now to see any change for the future. 10 years or more, probably.

[@RandomIdiotGS]

To be honest, the last good game BioWare made was honestly just Knights of the Old Republic. It ended after that. Mass Effect was just a very diluted run and gun RPG replacement (as a gamer I still don't even know what the eff they were trying with that) with a story as thrilling as the various flavours of lightshows you got at the end. Plus with the focus on who you let Shepard be intimate with it sure gave a new definition to the term "plotholes". As for Dragon Age, that simply copied the plot, setting and maps from Neverwinter Nights 2 changed some visuals and words and then applied blood and implied naughty scenes. To be frank, Mass Effect and Dragon Age were games made by prepubescents for prepubescents, but had nothing to offer in terms of gameplay or story whatsoever. Ironically years later Baldur's Gate 3 shows how a game can have proper gameplay, a great story and even mature themes for those looking for it. So, I don't feel sad for BioWare. They did this themselves by changing the A in their name to an H and an O and trying to cater games to edgy teenagers.

[@Archangelm127]

Look kid, I grew up on "Baldur's Gate II." *THAT* was the high point. Full stop. It's all been vaguely downhill since Throne of Bhaal.

[@Hreimr]

Did you play Mass Effect 1 and 2 on PC? I don't think you did... The controls in ME1 was immaculate - then in ME2 they decided: well, we need a button for this... Let's throw a die to see which button it should be....

[@Spawnfreak]

It legitimately baffles me when people tell me ME2 was the best one.

[@rimurutempest9937]

@@Spawnfreak The original ME will always be the best imo.

[@torikazuki8701]

I get that most people love Mass Effect 2. But understand that the fundamental narrative and structual problems that caused the catastrophic ME3 (And other than individual SEQUENCES, the game is a mess) were started with ME2. At the end of ME1, we were set up to believe that the second game would be all about FINDING a way to defeat the Reapers, so the Third game could focus solely on accomplishing that goal. Instead, not only dd the second game NOT do that, it actually pushed the story BACKWARDS, forcing ME3 to cover more territory and practically guaranteeing its failure on that basis alone. ME2 is highly regarded almost only because of its 'better combat' (I find Cover-Shooters dramatically inferior to open FPS's) and the well-written characters. The main story is a poorly-written pile of nonsense clearly written by someone who HATED the first game. It practically beats you over the head with this by killing your PC and his/her ship right from the start. The game then gives all agency to the Illusive Man, turning your character into his literal toady.

[@H41030v3rki110ny0u]

idk if you have read the Mass Effect novels, but their author Drew Karpyshyn also worked as a lead writer for Mass Effect 1 & 2... if i recall correctly, i believe he stopped working on Mass Effect 2 partway through development, which drastically changed the narrative.. if im not wrong on this bit as well, the story was supposed to focus on Dark Energy, which is referenced in the mission where you communicate with Tali and aid Quarians in Mass Effect 2.. but with the lead writer going elsewhere, things changed and we got what we did. that's the reason (so i understand) that the huge plotline concerning Dark Matter and its effect on the universe kinda just.. goes nowhere lol

[@torikazuki8701]

@@H41030v3rki110ny0u Yes, the original story idea was that the constant use of Mass Effect fields was actually harming the galaxy, so the Reapers were trying to stop that by harvesting advanced civilizations. It still doesn't fit with Sovereign's, 'We're so advanced you can't understand us' speech, but then NOTHING would. It's still better than what we did get by a tremendous amount. The core idea actually came from the 1986 Sci-Fi adventure game, 'Starflight', which had a twist worthy of the best in the genre.

[@H41030v3rki110ny0u]

@@torikazuki8701 i really dont think the plot of Mass Effect likely would have ever ended up great tbh, thinking more about it. the 1st game is my favorite, and i think it really just does its strengths the best.. worldbuilding. the plot serves well as a way to check out vistas, peoples, and ideas. i enjoy many of the stories within the Mass Effect universe, but i guess i dont really care for the plot overall, tbh ive never played nor heard of Starflight either, interesting. i wont look up the twist incase i ever get around to it lol

[@rorylol]

This is a problem across all of our society. People are hired based on political affiliation rather than talent.

[@abrahambobst4602]

Bioware died when all of the dev's that made them successful left.

[@TerranArt]

This video is in the bargaining stage of grief

[@RustyShackleford-wu9mz]

They started dying around when Dragon Age dropped. They had some of the spark with ME2 and the DA expansion, but they were dying.

[@adamfrazer5150]

Graduated from animation school with a talented guy who went on to work at Bioware. I still remember talking to him after E.mpire of A.varice grabbed it all up.

[@CollegeDroputPowerpoints]

It's our fault for wanting us to suffer. You said it right we're still letting this happen by giving them as many chances as they want. If we all learned to move on from this impulse they would have to fix things. I haven't picked up a controller in 3 years.

[@tjthomas1227]

Idk who you are but what is your opinion on Slipknot?

[@gaius2451]

There where people who liked Andromeda? That's crazy 😂

[@bootsdrew1145]

Heroes inspire stoicism and the drive for self improvement. Shepard leaves a legendary story that connects you emotionally to the game and its events. The snarky modern dickhead characters are just a twitter post translated into a game. It provides very few people, a very short sense of self satisfaction and does nothing to inspire others. We live in the world of “ME” and the writing shows it.

[@zephyr8072]

Shepard in ME3 was a mentally ill coward who had a creepy obsession with a random 10 year old. Don’t pretend that bad protagonists are a modern phenomenon.

[@insomnolant6043]

@zephyr8072 He wasn't saying that they're a modern only phenomenon, but that they're the only phenomenon in modernity.

[@zephyr8072]

@@insomnolant6043 Which is also false. They are there as they often are because, as it turns out, _most videogames are very badly written and always have been._

[@griffonclaw]

I love your video and I agree with you on everything you said except about EA. The real bread and butter of BioWare was their ability to create engines and then showcase them with excellent mechanics and storytelling. Baldur's Gate led to the trilogy and then spun off to Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. BioWare then made Neverwinter Nights, a story-rich campaign that included the first modding tools by BioWare. Neverwinter Nights exploded with customer-created content and it was carried over to Dragon Age: Origins. It was after EA's acquisition that all changed. No real modding support, official forums closed, and game development time was reduced drastically. To compound things further, EA mandated the Frostbite engine to be used for the next Dragon Age title. It was a good game, but it started to show some fractures in storytelling and game mechanics. It was made entirely worse with Andromeda. Also, the work culture at Montreal was bad enough that EA shut down that studio. Anthem was utter garbage. It was a complete mess, and its development saw a series of leads leaving the company. What is called BioWare now, is not a successor to the original duo of doctors that led the company to an incredible run of success. I'm withholding criticism of Veilguard, but I am not preordering it or rushing out to buy it day one. I am going to watch some brave soul stream it so I can get good look at it.

[@David-xg5uu]

No, they just moved on to form different companies. One of the companies made a turn based strategy called banner saga, and another made some sort of visual novel I think it was called stray gods. So I guess even the original developers got tired of doing the baldurs gate games that they were famous for in the end. I assume that I'm older than you if Mass Effect and Dragon Age are what you recognize Bioware for.

[@ultrademigod]

I would argue that Bioware was already doing this with ME:2

[@Michaeljack81sk]

Bioware died with Mass Effect 2. People might have liked it but it wasn't an RPG, it was a shooter with "rpg elements" Everything after that was a big long slide downhill

[@hajime5486]

Dragon age sucks. I never understood how it has this massive fanbase

[@planescaped]

Dragon Age 3 was underwhelming and overbloated. Dragon Age 2 was rushed out crap Dragon Age Origins and Awakening were fantastic when they released, they are probably a little dated by zoomer standards, but they were and are great games, and the series has been riding that initial wave ever since.

[@alienatedslayer]

I knew Bioware was cooked as soon as I seen all the companions in DAI after playing it for a few hours. I stopped playing after talking to everyone and realising they are all boring af. Didn't help either that none of them were good looking too. I played ME123 and DA1,2. Loved all the companions in ME and they were alright in DA. If they don't make badass, sexy companions then idgaf. They will never make a character like Garrus Vakarian again. RIP

[@williambrulip512]

Nearly 15 years late, buddy. ME3 was their downfall, but it wasn't too late to correct things, their next game could've raised them back up. Sadly, it was DAI, which was so bad I stopped playing it after around 7 or 8 hours ( and it comes from someone who has enjoyed doing multiple playthroughs of DA2, so that's saying a lot ) . Basically played it for 2 or 3 days, and I was done. I always play as the healer in fantasy games, especially the DA games. So no healer class was the death of the game for me since I suck at playing other classes ( even on Easy I was constantly getting rekt ) , plus it felt like a bad MMO game ( MMO side quests ) which we're playing solo. It felt so weird. DAI was the definitive death of Bioware for me. ME3 was their " arrow to the knee " as some would say. They could have survived it, and get better. But then they released DAI which is what killed them for good. After that, Andromeda, was an abuse of Bioware's corpse. And then, Anthem, which was the ultimate step, the burial of the abused corpse. They'll never come back. They can't anymore, it's too late. Everyone has known it for many years already. Getting closed by EA is the best thing that could happen to them, EA needs to put Bioware out of their misery. That being said, at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1320">22:00</a> you say " it's not EA's fault by the way, one other thing this is not EA's fault " . I strongly disagree with that statement. You're in denial here. Especially since, earlier in the video, you did incriminate EA ( so, recognizing that all of this is EA's fault ) . At <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="440">7:20</a> you say " and then a tiny step down they created Mass Effect 3, with big interference from EA as well " . Oh, so, ME3, the game that was Bioware's downfall, had " big interferences from EA " , yet none of this is EA's fault ? I mean... How could it possibly not be their fault, then ?... ME2 and DAO had very little ( if any ) EA interferences, and they were very good games. ME3 is the first time EA is big on interfering, which resulted in the ending that we know, yet none of it is EA's fault ? Make that make sense... Who forced Bioware to work on a multiplayer mode for ME3 ( which took away time and money they could've spent to have a much better ending ) ? Who forced Bioware to use Frostbite to develop DAI despite this trash engine not being made at all for RPG games ( causing Bioware to struggle for months to make it barely work ) ? Who forced a studio who's known to make exclusively solo games, to make a live service game named Anthem when this studio has ZERO experience in multiplayer/live service games and therefore had no intentions of ever making a game like that, simply because EA don't want any solo player game anymore and wants all of their games to be online and multiplayer ? Who forced Bioware to work on Warhammer Online Wrath of Heroes, a freakin' free to play MMO game, who luckily got cancelled ( thank god ) , but which doesn't change the fact that a lot of time and money was wasted into it ? Who forced Bioware to release DA2 months ( if not a year or two ) before it was ready ? Bioware's death isn't EA's fault ? Really ? As Cena would ask " Are you sure about that ? " Not saying ALL of it is EA's fault. I mean, it was Bioware's decision to use Frostbite for Andromeda ( which resulted in those legendary facial animations " My face is tired " , you don't say. As well as not being able to control our squad's use of powers, making it nearly impossible to make biotic explosions and all, since they never use their powers how we'd want them to use them ) and for Anthem. Frostbite had not been forced on them for these 2 games, only for DAI, so yes Bioware does have some responsability. But on the other hand, I can also understand Bioware's decision to use it. I mean, they struggled so hard to make it work for how they want to use it for RPGs when they made DAI, that it makes sense they would go " You know what ? We've gained experience on Frostbite against our will, so, let's use an engine that we know how to use now, and save the time of having to learn how to use another new engine once again. Let's not do all that all over again " . If I was Bioware, I would've stayed on Frostbite too. Now that we have all this experience on it, might as well use it, you know ? We can't exactly waste years to learn how to use a new engine for every new game we make, so, yeah, now that it's there, might as well keep it. Plus, it would earn them good points from EA when EA would see that they're using their engine. That EA would see Bioware like a good student at school. Keeping Frostbite for MEA and Anthem was a bad decision, yes, and it's on Bioware, yes. But who forced them to use Frostbite in the first place on DAI ?... Without this EA decision, chances are Bioware would've never chose to use Frostbite for any of their games, on their own. So, again, if " it's not EA's fault " , I don't see who's fault that can be, since it's clearly not Bioware's fault. Agree about what you said on the next DA ( or should I say the next Anthem, since the devs themselves are calling it " Anthem with dragons " , so it's basically Anthem 2 just with a different name and different skins ) . And yeah, to wrap up this comment, I also agree on what Bioware became. It's not the Bioware we knew and loved. It hasn't been for the past nearly 15 years. And I've been saying it for all these years too. Bioware is just a name on the door of a studio. What made that name great, was the people working behind that door, not the name or the logo hanging on that door. Problem is, the people working behind that door have changed nearly 15 years ago, it hasn't been the same people working behind the door. And since it's the people who are developping the game and not the name on the door, well, if you change those people, we get a whole different studio. What is named Bioware today, is not what we know as Bioware. What we know as Bioware, is now named Archetype Entertainment. That's the studio I follow now, and that I'm interested to see what they'll make. Though my hopes aren't too high, because, it's a studio owned by WOTC, so... What's currently named Bioware, are people who makes low quality multiplayer and live service games, people with zero experience in solo player games. Knowing that, I don't see how Anthem 2 ( or DA something, whatever they call it ) can be any good. I'd love for it to be different, I'd love for Bioware to still be the Bioware we knew from ME1, DAO, and ME2, when they were on top of the world from a quality game perspective. But it's just not the case. That's the hard and sad reality of the situation.

[@jeagerblackpaw2922]

hmmm, would lean more towards the era of baldurs gate 1+2 as the games from Bioware that I keep going back to, hence the height of their production.

[@davewxc]

I have no hope for DA4 because of the streamlined action RPG the showcase displayed. From many spells and skills in Origins as a grand buffet, it was now streamlined into a 2 buttons microwave dinner. I'm afraid you're right we also have to dread the writing quality.

[@What_do_I_Think]

Thank you for that good and informative video. I think, you pointed out a lot of problems of todays game creator studios. Not Bioware alone. They want to follow the trends and by doing so, they sell their souls. Another component is, that the developers change, by which reason whatsoever. So we have completely different companies before us, when we see our beloved names. I also see a lot of problems in the growth of corporations and the pressure the stock market is putting on them. See how many people where layed of in the gaming industry, even with big profit margins still. But for the stock market, the profit must increase ever more. The best game, that reminded me very much about Dragon Age: Origns was Baldurs Gate 3. It might be not for every taste, because it is absolutely not dark fantasy, more on the light side and it is turn based, which not everybody likes, but it took a lot of role play elements from Origins and also has a very deep story and has perfectionated the dialog system, by making it more immersive for the casual players. But what might be more important in this discussion is the culture of Larian studios, the creator of BG3. The founder came out specifically in the last year with many things Larian does different than most studios do today. He values his workforce and looks to keep his talents instead of doing hire and fire. Also Larian builds up his reputation and on the strength of his games. Instead changing the game mechanics from one game to another, they build up on each other and improve on it. You can see that on the last three big games at least, they made. Instead of switching to first person and realtime combat as every other studio did, they stick with what their fans expect from them and make it better with every game. IMHO they also have great game writing with likeable but really unique and variating characters. I hope, that Larian stays that way. They have one advantage: It is a mostly privately owned company and thus independent from the demands of the stock market. So they don't need to make compromises for the sake of growth.

[@LoneWolf-rc4go]

To be honest a lot of this is really just the natural churn of businesses. They start off as agile, innovative and customer focused then, over time, they get fat, lazy and stupid. The old management leaves and the new management don't care about the company in the same way. Developers move on or retire with the company struggling to replace their particular talent. Things become more ossified and 'corporate' with the board reporting to shareholders. Income and market share become more important than the concept of making a good game. Customers are increasingly viewed as sheeple, just there to be milked for a much profit as can be wrung out of them. Quality drops, fans leave, talent departs and the company eventually folds. Larian is the new Bioware. Give it a couple of decades and we'll be talking about another company being the 'new Larian'.

[@What_do_I_Think]

@@LoneWolf-rc4go As I already wrote. The advantage of Larian is, that it is privately owned. I think, when Sven retires, we might get into discussions again or if he sells the company, but for the later I currently have no fear at all, because he is a gamer himself and not a business man.

[@LoneWolf-rc4go]

@@What_do_I_Think Exactly, they have the advantage of having a gamer as a manager but, eventually, this is going to change. It might take a few decades but it will happen.

[@damagingthebrand7387]

You just figured this out? Bioware died in, what, 2014?

[@captainthunderbolt7541]

I think the last good game that Bioware made was Dragon Age Origins. That feels like a long time ago.

[@MasticinaAkicta]

Expecting... I expect NOTHING these days. I have seen them destroy IP's before. Now if a GOOD game suddenly shows up, awesome.

[@HiHi-ww4ne]

Subscribe if your here, north does amazing content so dont miss out

[@SaberisloveSaberislife]

Dragon Age: Origins was the last best BioWare game. Here's a like for mentioning Lorerunner.

[@fotistsantilas39]

Mass 1 and 2 was made by legends in their field, good luck getting there now with corpo involvement and profit margins.

[@bobbygoestoabyss6624]

Now it's decomposing Bioware.

[@sargielmelek4403]

Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 and Dragon Age : Origins are amazing.

[@jubei7259]

I loved Origins & the ME trilogy is probably my favourite game(s) but as others have pointed out, Bioware in reality died a long time ago. Nowadays, it's merely little more than another department of EA wearing its deceased skin as a suit & it really is a shame but we have to face the fact that they simply haven't made a decent game in over a decade. I fear The Veilguard is unfortunately gonna be more generic slop, just like the rest of EA's games.

[@Chareidos]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="789">13:09</a> At this moment, where you expressed your hope, I was like "Come on!? Are you for Real" EA is an amoeba... it digests every studio that it envelopes. I was glad that I stood away from any franchise from Bioware from that moment on!