It was okay though, because the publisher had secret weapons in their armoury. Arguably the world’s biggest RPG developer at the time, BioWare was coming off the highly successful Mass Effect Trilogy, alongside two Dragon Age titles (admittedly one was received better than the other). As it turns out, BioWare is perhaps most indicative of EA’s fall from grace.<\/p>\n Dragon Age Inquisition received multiple Game of the Year awards despite never really getting out of second gear for much of its runtime, arguably endemic of a sluggish start to the generation rather than it really being the kind of game that would win the same awards in other years.<\/p>\n After numerous E3 teases (including one year where EA essentially showed off concept art for seemingly every game), BioWare revealed Mass Effect: Andromeda – a loose continuation of the Mass Effect franchise, set in a neighbouring galaxy and only featuring nods to the original trilogy. It was a smart play, given the reverence players have for that franchise. Unfortunately, despite multiple delays, the game launched as a buggy mess – it’s facial animations uploaded as memes for months after its release, and even in the week before it (thanks to EA’s early access trial with EA Access).<\/p>\n Andromeda never really recovered, but it’s lessons weren’t heeded. The developer’s next project, Anthem, would be torn apart and rebuilt with just months to go before launch, with it’s own creators seemingly unsure what kind of game it was supposed to be until it was shown on Microsoft’s E3 stage in 2017 (according to an eye-opening report on Kotaku<\/a>). This was supposed to be EA cutting a piece of the “shared world shooter” pie, but instead set BioWare further adrift.<\/p>\n This squandered potential carries over to EA’s acquisition of the Star Wars license in 2013. The company could create exclusive Star Wars titles for the next ten years, the fruits of which had, up until recently, largely faced criticism. Battlefield developers DICE released the first Battlefront game in years but it offered no single player component and a lack of content in multiplayer.<\/p>\n
\nAnthem failed to take off (Picture: EA\/BioWare) <\/span><\/p>\n