I already dont buy anything xbox but god damn i hate MS for this shit. Buy a bunch of studios to lock in IP then kill them all and shed talent. So fucking stupid.
I don’t get EA/Bioware. Fantasy is consistently more popular than scifi. Inquisition was their best selling game. Yet DA was never treated like a heavyweight like Mass Effect. My expectations tanked when David Gaider left
Looking through each series’ Wikipedia articles, it looks like Mass Effect sold about 50% more than Dragon Age 1 and 2. And that tracks with my experience. I know far more people who’ve played Mass Effect than Dragon Age, and I’ve never played Dragon Age myself.
I agree, Mass Effect was/is gaming pop culture at one point. Almost every gamer I know has played or at least very familiar with ME. That number is maybe 1/4th for DA.
Was it? Even if it was, you have to consider the cost and time that goes into making it.
Also, where’s the post-release monetization? Like it or not, fantasy games made for smart people unfortunately are held to the same standard as sports games made for morons.
One factor might be just that Mass Effect came out first and was also Bioware’s last game before EA bought them.
The rest is just my opinion, but I do believe that Mass Effect simply told a better story (multicolored endings aside) and had a better cast of characters. Not to mention the fact that it was a single narrative across the three installments helped keep engagement up. And shooters were incredibly popular at that time.
This is why people really have to start caring about who they work for, and professionally represent. It’s a tough, very unfair lesson to learn unfortunately. But if the company you are working for starts acting unethically, trust me (as someone who has learned the hard way), it’s a slippery slope that quickly has no bottom.
Of course the little guy pays the price here, as usual, and my sincere hope is that they all quickly bounce back into better roles.
I think we need more worker protections. Mandatory severance, can't fire without cause.
A lot of people don't get much choice who they work for. Basic devs and QA and now out of as job and need to scramble to find another job. It's nice some of these are getting severance but it's not mandatory nor the norm in America.
You always have a choice in who you work for. I’m not saying sometimes this choice doesn’t get frustratingly complicated, it does. But you always ultimately have that choice. More worker protections aren’t going to do shit either, too many peeons are brainwashed to ever successfully see it through, and with more regulations come more loopholes.
Nope, the only thing that’s going to work, is if people finally wake the hell up, and grow a pair to collectively do something about it. Might never be possible, but if it isn’t, well stuff like this isn’t ever going to change. What if the entire staff of Epic, in response, just decided to not show up tomorrow onwards? Stood the line through all the threats…Epic would quickly be in very big trouble. The buck would end there, and change would get forced.
While I have no sympathy for the upper management behind this stupidity, I would like to remind people to ensure their fire is focused away from developers and other non-management staff. They generally have no say in these calls.
If you have the connections to pull their staff away into jobs at other companies, please do that instead. It may not feel like it, but it will do more long-term damage if you can extract their senior talent.
Eh, fuck it. I have no need for more “douche and a turd sandwich” “both sides suck” humor in the 2020s and I have zero desire to give rockstar any money after their blatant union busting.
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