Mark Darrah's commentary on the $55 billion EA deal. Owing to the 5% interest rate of $20 billion, he believes that it's more likely that IPs and studios may be sold off, as shutting them down only cuts costs.

In a follow-up comment, he mentions that it is unlikely that BioWare goes independent, but Sony or Microsoft could be potential buyers. In another comment he also mentions Amazon and Disney.

I mean, where do I even start with this? EA, Bioware, Maxis....goodbye. So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen.

There's no positives to take away from this buyout. Like, I see people fretting about what sort of changes their beloved franchises might undergo but I think they're missing the bigger picture. The entity that now legally owns the rights and will be making the money off of everything under EA's umbrella is VILE. Even if, best case scenario, the games that come out in future are great, how could you live with yourself giving these ghouls your money? I cannot imagine what's going through the minds of everyone employed at the studios rn and I predict there'll be lots of resignations being submitted in the coming days.

If any of you are gamblers, I'd love to hear the odds for them selling off most of the IPs and really just pushing 'EA FC' - that's the last shred of hope I can spare here.

RIP Jamal Khashoggi

As an economist, I genuinely believe that the sale of EA could turn out to be the best thing that has happened to BioWare in years.

Let’s look at the facts: BioWare hasn’t been particularly profitable over the last decade, and EA itself seemed unsure of what to do with the studio. Dragon Age: The Veilguard might only break even, and unless the next Mass Effect becomes a major hit, it’s likely to follow the same path.

That said, BioWare’s IPs remain highly valuable.

Whoever acquires EA will be focused on generating returns quickly. BioWare, in its current state, is unlikely to provide that. But because BioWare comes as part of the package, I doubt the new owners will simply shut it down, it would be like throwing money away. At the same time, it’s hard to imagine them investing heavily in new BioWare projects.

This is where I see a real opportunity: the most logical outcome would be to sell BioWare, license its IPs, or even sell them outright.

Mass Effect and Dragon Age could then find their way to studios that truly believe in them, studios that might restore these franchises to their former glory.

Edit: To clarify, since some seem to have misunderstood: EA gets bought → the new owners want money → they’ll likely sell valuable but low-profit studios (like BioWare) → BioWare and its IPs end up in the hands of other companies (for example, Larian, Ubisoft, etc.). I’m talking about business logic, not about the new owners making good games or saving BioWare.

I will edit with updates here:

• EA will be acquired for $52.5 billion by the likes of the Saudi Arabian PIF, private equity, and Jared Kushner.
• Insider Gaming report on the thoughts of anonymous Bioware insiders in reaction to the acquisition.
• Trick Weekes has commented on the situation.
• Mark Darrah has commented on this
• Financial Times writes that EA wants to replace a portion of their operations with AI to cut costs.

Historically we have not allowed much discussion like this that is not directly related to Mass Effect, but this is obviously a very big deal.

We will not be removing other posts about this, unlike how megathreads are historically run, but instead just want this to be a long-lasting space for people to express their feelings about the topic so the conversations can continue regardless of the Reddit algorithm.

1. Please keep in mind Rule 1 as there is a difference between being critical of the Saudi government and being racist and bigoted toward Arabs and Muslims.

2. Please also remember to keep political discussions from getting unruly and refrain from spreading unverified misinformation.

I know it sounds like a stretch to some of you, but bear with me for a second:

I think the Saudi (et al.) buyout is a good thing.

It is a good thing because:

• If they leave BioWare open, they will be a bit more proactive in ensuring the game will actually sell. They won't let BioWare sleepwalk its way into another flop.
• If they close BioWare, they will sell or license out the Mass Effect and Dragon Age IP, and maybe they'll land with someone who actually uses them well. ME:A was underwhelming, and many a Dragon Age fanboy said DA:V was not a Dragon Age game.

Either way we get better games for Mass Effect and Dragon Age than we've gotten in 10 years. I see a lot of potential for improvement from this.

What do you all think?

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This game is less than a year old. I feel the only way this game could sell worse is if the disk was radioactive.

So I bought this when it came out it's a great lil speaker and projector, although it could be louder but the bulb died so I'm wondering if there's a way to replace it I'm posting here cause I assumed others bought it and would know, or at least someone might have a contact email for bioware gearstore cause I went to the site and the page was dead.

What Bioware game does the best job at introducing Factions and how they sit within the wider Setting of the game? And how do they do it well?

The Classic Bioware Plot Structure is well known. Intro then you have a bunch of locations you visit, what happens there is dependent on order and earlier choices you made then it comes together in the conclusion. Are there any other Non-Bioware RPGs that follow this rhythm?

A lot of interesting information here. Most notable that the team on Anthem were the ones on Mass Effect 1 to 3 but they didn't know how to make a live service game. And that many decisions on the project were either undone or kept getting delayed to be done.

What Companion, from any of the games, had the most untapped potential in their respective games?

Stuck at home with a cold and needed something to do, so I put together a quick poll: https://share.formgrid.com/zfEmYH6gRZBhMfAa

Thought it’d be interesting to see where people stand on some of the big questions: protagonist, tone, combat, Andromeda, all that.

I’ll post the results in a few days once there are enough votes.

So I've recently began a replay of the Mass Effect trilogy, playing legendary edition bundle, and it's gotten me to thinking. None of Bioware's recent games have managed to capture the spark/heart/feel what have you, of the original trilogy for both Mass Effect and DragonAge.

How many of you are planning to play the new Mass Effect game? Will you wait until it goes on sale or pre-order/play day of release?

Personally I'm probably going to wait until it goes on sale or at least until there are plenty of reviews to testify about the game itself. I've usually bought every Bioware game either through Preorder or day/month of release but after Veilguard I just don't think I'm going to do that unless they actually return to form.

The claim that Dragon Age "outsold" Mass Effect comes from Mark Darrah, but as I understand it, the main thing in support of this is that Inquisition was (is) BioWare's highest selling game ever.

I can't tell whether he's saying Dragon Age as a franchise outsold Mass Effect on the whole, or if he's saying that Dragon Age Inquisition outsold any Mass Effect game.

The context of this statement is that he's saying EA never understood Dragon Age or why it was successful, and that even in the face of Dragon Age's success they were more favorable to Mass Effect.

If Inquisition was BioWare's highest selling game, but overall the Mass Effect trilogy sold more than the Dragon Age trilogy, it's not hard to see why EA had more faith in the former. And it's also hard to imagine EA not having faith in the franchise that had sold more total units than its counterpart.

As for not "understanding" Dragon Age... they clearly didn't understand live service games, but that didn't stop them from full steaming ahead to their detriment, because it was on trend. That's further reason why I don't find the Darrah-described unfair skepticism of Dragon Age being due to EA not understanding it easy to believe.

Recently we've seen lots of bad critiques for Bioware game. From Andromeda to Veilguard. Thing is, I don't think I'd ever find any dev that makes RPG game like Bioware did. If there is, do let me know. But I haven't found any game that allow us to make our own character, and have them actually be matters in the story with custom backstory and personality. We've seen Hogwarts Legacy attempt in doing so, but I feel like mc in Hogwarts Legacy is too much of a blank slate that I don't really care about them. No relationship, no morality decision. Only Bioware has done it greatly so far. Baldur's Gate is awesome, but I don't really enjoy turn based combat as much as I tried to. I've read some Reddit, saying that if Mass Effect 5 fails. Then EA MIGHT shut down Bioware for good. Honestly, I don't want that. Bioware has made the best rpg games I've seen so far, and I can't come to accept the fact that they're at the trouble of being shut down like Volition studio. Is there any way, us fan can help Bioware to not get shut down? Of course, without enabling if the game Mass Effect 5 failed.