Mass Effect: Andromeda - No DLCs

[HiddenX]

Kotaku reports that Mass Effect: Andromeda will not get DLCs:

Sources: Mass Effect: Andromeda Will Not Get Single-Player DLC

Yesterday, a widely shared Facebook post claimed that BioWare had canceled Mass Effect: Andromeda’s downloadable content. The good news: that Facebook post was a hoax. The bad news: they guessed correctly. Mass Effect: Andromeda will indeed not be receiving any single-player DLC, three people familiar with BioWare’s plans have told me.

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Thanks Farflame!

More information.

 

[Morbus]

It seems like that Facebook post wasn't a hoax. A hoax means it's a lie. If it's true, it's a rumor.

Kotaku...

Anyway, it's a good thing that they didn't have a season pass.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Mass Effect: Andromeda will indeed not be receiving any single-player DLC

Probably implies that it will get Multiplayer DLCs instead. Oh, my ...
Thanks to the current MMO hype ...

 

[zahratustra]

current MMO hype is a curiosity in itself because none of the recent crop of MMOs achieved any lasting impact and, seemingly, they just putter along with devs/publishers hoping for a miracle.

 

[joxer]

If it's true that ME4 won't have DLC, this is the best news I've heard in the past week.

 

[DarNoor]

I wonder if that means that sales didn't reach expectations. Because, fit hey had, you would think Bioware/EA would milk it for everything that had.

 

[ChaosTheory]

So I've been FINALLY 'trying' to play this game over the last couple of weeks (waited for as many patches as I could)… Sad to say, I'm just not getting into it. I know the main criticism is about the performance, animation, etc, but I actually don't mind that. To me, it's the plot.

The story about going to another galaxy in arks and finding new home-- all great! But the whole Remnant thing, the Scourge, etc is just really dumb. So exploring new planets, meeting new aliens/flora/fauna isn't exciting enough, apparently-- we have to add the Protheans (cough, cough) I mean Remnants to give us robots and other unecessary story crap?

On top of that, it's the worst user interface I've experienced in any game I can remember. It took me hours to figure out the crafting system, the planets so far are kind of silly with convenient Nomad paths going everywhere like a 1980's Hotwheels car set, there's too much combat and I'm already sick of exploring Remnant ruins-- and I'm only on the 2nd planet. It's like Oblivion gates all over again…

I do like some of the characters, though, but I'm finding little reason to do many of the side quests in an effort to continue to quickly advance the story and continue crew interaction.

There are some clever bits to this game, but I really cannot fathom how they could go from a brilliant ME1-3 and then come up with… this? It breaks my heart.

 

[Couchpotato]

Seems Mass Effect: Andromeda is what Dragon Age 2 was to it's franchise. As both had negative feedback, and poor sales that EA & BioWare scrapped more DLC's.

 

[zahratustra]

I know the main criticism is about the performance, animation, etc, but I actually don't mind that. To me, it's the plot.

IIRC most of the Watchers who complained, complained about story and writing rather than performance and animation?

 

[ChaosTheory]

IIRC most of the Watchers who complained, complained about story and writing rather than performance and animation?

I tried to avoid reading anything-- including reviews-- until I played it. Mass Effect means a lot to me… I loved the first 3 games, I've read the novels, etc. I waited for this game like no other, but due to the initial reception, I decided to wait for a few patches.

I wanted a perfect playthrough.

So it pains me to see the state of the ME universe here. Again, BioWare had a LOT going right coming into this game, but it's evident it got away from that. The story is a mess, the UI is a mess… This reminds me of a groupthink project where everyone was afraid to say "no". Maybe some didn't like Casey Hudson or his ideas, but he could apparently run a team.

I would like to say it's ME's version of Dragon Age 2, but DA2 didn't kill the franchise. This may have. No one talked about 'shelving' Dragon Age after the reception of DA2-- they admitted the issues and said they'd make it right. Here, everyone's walking away. That's telling.

 

[zahratustra]

I sympathize CT

 

[RPGFool]

@ChaosTheory

Agree with your laments.

To me there's a big puzzle here. IMO Casey Hudson is a big piece of the puzzle. It is apparently true that he could run a team… But something happened with ME3 -- Hudson became the center of attention… gave interviews making promises he didn't keep… and then abandoned his team's excellent work in favor of his own ending that undercut the team's story and great work.

ME4 started with a team that had been abandoned by Hudson. It started with a fractured fan base that had likewise been abandoned thanks to Hudson. A new team in a deep hole.

I suspect that the final straw has to do with the pie-in-the-sky that is Anthem. Anthem is BioWare's long awaited MMO RPG. A perfect game that will finally solve all BioWare problems. It will be everything that SWTOR couldn't pull off.

ME:A could have been a lot more with just a bit more investment, polish and work. But that didn't happen in part because of resources diverted to Anthem and expectations that Anthem will save the day.

It's a big puzzle… those are some of the threads I see.

__

 

[Moriendor]

ME:A could have been a lot more with just a bit more investment, polish and work. But that didn't happen in part because of resources diverted to Anthem and expectations that Anthem will save the day.

I agree. With Anthem BioWare can easily tap into the huge DLC, microtransaction, loot box market to generate billions in revenue from just one game/franchise.

With Mass Effect they would have always had the problem that people expect a more traditional single player or at least narrative-driven game. Every DLC would have been accompanied by vocal complaints. Any serious attempt at microtransactions for ME multiplayer would have been outright lambasted by the fan base.

Anthem is giving Bio the leeway and the freedom to shamelessly hop on the bandwagon of microtransaction-driven multiplayer gaming without a legacy that could be destroyed or a legacy fan base that would review-bomb every such move. Anthem allows BioWare to have their cake and eat it, too.

 

[zahratustra]

Is there any reason Moriendor that you write about Anthem as if it was ALREADY a hit, a WOW beater, a money spinner, a trophy wife and a dream fulfillment all rolled into one? Do you know something we don't?

 

[henriquejr]

If it's true that ME4 won't have DLC, this is the best news I've heard in the past week.

I'd say this is the best news I heard this year!

 

[Stingray]

It seems like that Facebook post wasn't a hoax. A hoax means it's a lie. If it's true, it's a rumor.

In the FB post, some company (that BioWare claims they've never heard of - and that may not even actually exist) claims they'd been hired to work on DLC, but then it was cancelled. There's nothing stopping that post from being a hoax and it also being true that Andromeda in fact won't have any DLCs. That's called a coincidence.

Also worth noting (but not mentioned in the news post here), this Kotaku article claims that not only has ME:A DLC been cancelled, but plans for a sequel have been cancelled too.

 

[Moriendor]

Is there any reason Moriendor that you write about Anthem as if it was ALREADY a hit, a WOW beater, a money spinner, a trophy wife and a dream fulfillment all rolled into one? Do you know something we don't?

No, I do not know something you don't but what I do know is...

- There is an army of BioWare fanboys (and gals) just waiting to jump at anything new that Bio releases.
- EA/Bio are going to have a marketing budget of epic proportions for Anthem that will guarantee the usual overhype in all sorts of media that will result in millions of preorders by default.
- EA already has a 10 year plan (or vision if you will) for this game. They have talked about this being their "Star Wars" kind of IP so they are thinking in very big terms here.
- With pretty Frostbite visuals it will automatically attract all the folks who buy or preorder on a fancy looking trailer alone.
- This type of multiplayer game is simply extremely popular at the moment. Just look at E3. Everything was multiplayer here, multiplayer there.
- BioWare has allegedly been having their best of the best A-team, well, or pretty much anyone with scraps of talent working on Anthem. They are dead serious about this one becoming a smashing success.

Could it turn into a flop? Absolutely. But not at first, I don't think. It's a new BioWare IP and thanks to the usual mainstream media hype plus YT, Twitch, streaming etc. it will sell like hotcakes at first for sure.
IF it turns into a flop at all then it would likely be a secondary flop, i.e. if EA/Bio get too greedy and botch it up or if the game ends up with poor post-release support or something like that.

 

[Pongo]

I'm surprised, but I'm a bit sad about this. I never managed to finish ME3 and ME:A sounded a bit shit so I never bought it… But I guess I thought Mass Effect would always be around, and maybe it would come good again next time round. But this sounds like the end of the road for the franchise really.

 

[Gabriel]

I played through the game once. I probably would have played though a DLC, I found the story interesting enough to keep me playing but I can't see myself ever doing a replay of the game. Game play became very tedious.

Usually with Bioware games I'll play through at least 2 times, Dragon Age 1-3 I've probably completed 10 times or more. Bioware threw this game together in a year in a half after severely bumbling development. I think they thought people would eat the game up by putting the Mass Effect tag on it. You can polish a turd and call it a gem but in the end it still stinks.

 

[zahratustra]

- There is an army of BioWare fanboys (and gals) just waiting to jump at anything new that Bio releases.

Didn't quite worked out with DA2, DA:I and ME:A did it? And while it's true that ME:A fiasco was, most likely, caused by by Bioware's concentration on the Anthem, the same wasn't true about the other two.

- EA/Bio are going to have a marketing budget of epic proportions for Anthem that will guarantee the usual overhype in all sorts of media that will result in millions of preorders by default.

SWTOR?

- EA already has a 10 year plan (or vision if you will) for this game. They have talked about this being their "Star Wars" kind of IP so they are thinking in very big terms here.

Destiny? Did EA learned from that experience? Time will tell…

- With pretty Frostbite visuals it will automatically attract all the folks who buy or preorder on a fancy looking trailer alone.

That's true.

- This type of multiplayer game is simply extremely popular at the moment. Just look at E3. Everything was multiplayer here, multiplayer there.

Yes, and that means that market might be a bit saturated right now.

- BioWare has allegedly been having their best of the best A-team, well, or pretty much anyone with scraps of talent working on Anthem. They are dead serious about this one becoming a smashing success.

SWTOR again…