We need to tear down the current system. It isn't working for anyone but the people at the very top. Video games were toys first, with art and technical prowess at their core. Then interactive games became artistic endeavors with commercial benefit.

Show Post

Unless you're genre purists like CDP or Larian etc, a big-budget RPG can be a v unattractive bet. Expensive, complicated, if it goes wrong you lose big. So I do always appreciate publishers who don't have the genre as their bread and butter having a bash - MS rebooting Fable, Capcom OKing DD2, etc.

Show Post

For C&C, that mainstream attempt manifested as increasingly famous people in the cutscenes, rough but admirable efforts to foster an eSports community, and finally mobile slop. For BioWare, it was less-RPGy games, including Anthem & the aborted action/multiplayer versions of DA4, and then death.

Show Post

All of which is to say: it didn't fit. RPGs weren't seen as 'mass market enough', and EA didn't have the patience or willingness to invest to try to be the next Cyberpunk or whatever. Like C&C/RTS, attempts to mainstream it had failed, resigning RPG's status as games for nerds. EA wasn't interested.

Show Post

In every conversation, folk from the BioWare side were proud of the RPG chops, while those from the EA end seemed at pains to downplay them. I remember thinking: What are you even doing with this studio if this is the attitude? New owners or no, that became the problem at some point after ME3/DAI.

Show Post