EA and BioWare haven't been having a good time as of late. The latter just announced that they were canning plans on their overhaul to Anthem over trying to better focus on their upcoming games such as Dragon Age. Bloomberg reporter and industry insider Jason Schreier added to the news by claiming the new Dragon Age wasn't initially going to be like the ones before it, and would have had games as a service (GaaS) elements and online multiplayer. Schreier said that decision was walked back after the success of the single-player Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order from EA, and that the publisher "allowed" BioWare to make the next Dragon Age a regular single-player RPG after seeing that those types of games could perform well. It also appears that the development team itself was mixed on what direction they wanted to take Dragon Age in, with some split over actually wanting to include those GaaS multiplayer features, while others adamantly did not.

Time for some news that is going to make BioWare fans really happy.

Following the success of Jedi Fallen Order and the failure of Anthem, EA has allowed BioWare to make the next Dragon Age a single-player RPG. Previously, it was planned as a service game https://t.co/tk9uUlzOsb

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 25, 2021

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[Foxi4]

I think publishers are slowly getting the idea that games-as-a-service are a very risky gamble. The potential is great, but the market has a big cap on it. People will only ever want to use a handful of services at a time, they don't want to be on too many ecosystems simultaneously. When you make a game that's supposed to perpetuate itself in a never-ending multiplayer-focused content drip, you can end up with a Fortnite and you're golden until the end of time, or an Anthem and you're in the hole - big time. The market is saturated now - even objectively excellent games like Apex Legends are having trouble fighting for supremacy with the big boys because, simply put, people are already invested elsewhere. You *really* have to innovate to come out on top in this market, and you have to do everything just right the first time - you don't get a second chance. Games like this have a few weeks, at most few months to build that initial subscriber base that will do all your marketing for you - if your game comes out as a flop right out of the gate, the word is out and there's no fixing it. In a single player title you have an easier time getting everything just right - things are more predictable and more easily orchestrated without that mass multiplayer human element that constantly needs to be fed new batches of content.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

I think publishers are slowly getting the idea that games-as-a-service are a very risky gamble. The potential is great, but the market has a big cap on it. People will only ever want to use a handful of services, they don't want to be on too many ecosystems all at the same time. When you make a game that's supposed to perpetuate itself in a never-ending multiplayer-focused content drip, you can end up with a Fortnite and you're golden until the end of time, or an Anthem and you're in the hole - big time. The market is saturated now - even objectively excellent games like Apex Legends are having trouble fighting for supremacy with the big boys because, simply put, people are already invested elsewhere. You *really* have to innovate to come out on top in this market, and you have to do everything just right the first time - you don't get a second chance. Games like this have a few weeks, at most few months to build that initial subscriber base that will do all your marketing for you - if your game comes out as a flop right out of the gate, the word is out and there's no fixing it. In a single player title you have an easier time getting everything just right - things are more predictable and more easily orchestrated without that mass multiplayer human element that constantly needs to be fed new batches of content.

Exactly.
Alongside the time investment on a different game/service/platform, people tend to ride the hype/popularity train for relevance..

 

[Foxi4]

Exactly.
Alongside the time investment on a different game/service/platform, people tend to ride the hype/popularity train for relevance..

No joke, I know a couple people who have four-digits play time in Destiny and Destiny 2 (hi @BORTZ!), once you pick your poison you tend to stick to it. You might try something new, but there's always that moment when you think "this is great, but I'll need to invest hundreds of hours into this before I'm a boss", and that's always disheartening. I was like that about Rainbow Six Siege - I fell behind on a couple of seasons and by the time I came back there were so many new operators and so many new strats that my experience wasn't worth much anymore, it was a whole new game. That's great on one hand, everything feels fresh, but on the other you're effectively starting from scratch.

 

[Chary]

so many new operators and so many new strats that my experience wasn't worth much anymore, it was a whole new game.

I put at least 200hrs into The Division 2, then covid happened, lots of other cool games came out, around six months passed before I got back into TD2...and everything was different, even the menus. New weapons, new level cap, new crap, new season pass. I felt like an 90 year old man yelling at clouds...so I moved on to other games. I love the game, but I don't have it in me to relearn it all from scratch.

 

[Foxi4]

I put at least 200hrs into The Division 2, then covid happened, lots of other cool games came out, around six months passed before I got back into TD2...and everything was different, even the menus. New weapons, new level cap, new crap, new season pass. I felt like an 90 year old man yelling at clouds...so I moved on to other games. I love the game, but I don't have it in me to relearn it all from scratch.

It certainly makes gaming feel like work. You have to do your dailies or you'll fall behind, and God forbid, you don't want to fall behind or you're effectively a nooblet again and may as well put it down. That content tap needs to be open full blast to keep the youngsters throwing mommy's money at it, otherwise the whole thing falls apart. Huge undertaking, which is probably why Epic dropped Unreal Tournament 4 - too busy with Fortnite. Bungie is only concerned with Destiny, no new games from that company anytime soon. You have to throw everything and the kitchen sink at it or it doesn't work.

 

[p1ngpong]

What?!?!?!?! If I can not buy Dragon Age Ultimate Team card packs to beat poor people online I will be cancelling my £100 Deluxe Gold Edition pre-order!

 

[MarkDarkness]

Special thanks to Avengers for being the predecessor to the downfall of GaaS. Call me a boomer, but never once, a single time, I've had fun with this type of game. I need to play the game an move on, my backlog is too big.

 

[Jayro]

"Thanks" EA, you absolute shit bags.

 

[ZeroFX]

derp.

 

[Taleweaver]

... the publisher "allowed" BioWare to make the next Dragon Age a regular single-player RPG after seeing that those types of games could perform well.

Erm... Is this sarcasm, or is EA really this far detached from reality that this is news somehow?

No... Seriously : I get the 'it's EA' meme, but this is entering surrealism territory.

 

[Chary]

Erm... Is this sarcasm, or is EA really this far detached from reality that this is news somehow?

No... Seriously : I get the 'it's EA' meme, but this is entering surrealism territory.

It’s how Schreier worded it, so it seems that EA was demanding the game be such a way, then they stepped back after seeing that single player games can still sell.

 

[Taleweaver]

It’s how Schreier worded it, so it seems that EA was demanding the game be such a way, then they stepped back after seeing that single player games can still sell.

Oh, Jeez...

Anyway, thanks for the clarification.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

I put at least 200hrs into The Division 2, then covid happened, lots of other cool games came out, around six months passed before I got back into TD2...and everything was different, even the menus. New weapons, new level cap, new crap, new season pass. I felt like an 90 year old man yelling at clouds...so I moved on to other games. I love the game, but I don't have it in me to relearn it all from scratch.

This is me with MMOs as well.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

It certainly makes gaming feel like work. You have to do your dailies or you'll fall behind, and God forbid, you don't want to fall behind or you're effectively a nooblet again and may as well put it down. That content tap needs to be open full blast to keep the youngsters throwing mommy's money at it, otherwise the whole thing falls apart. Huge undertaking, which is probably why Epic dropped Unreal Tournament 4 - too busy with Fortnite. Bungie is only concerned with Destiny, no new games from that company anytime soon. You have to throw everything and the kitchen sink at it or it doesn't work.

"Gaming feels like work." That sounds familiar...*gets brutally ripped apart after 500+ hours in MK11 finishing every character tower other than the Kollector because he sucks using the AI fighter for most of it just so I can have access to every character's intro/outro, better skins and gear items, and the thing I really wanted, brutalities, which you can't unlock by don't doing 'em like with character's second fatalities*

It was so bad I made a blog post last year after I was finally done with the game...

...until they possibly make a Kombat Pack 3.

 

[Ritsuki]

Never played any Dragon Age games, are they good?

 

[xBleedingSoulx]

Never played any Dragon Age games, are they good?

The 3 Dragon Age games vary greatly in gameplay and quality, the first is widely accepted as the best and is my personal favourite but I liked them all. Not everyone likes all 3 because they all play so differently.

 

[Xzi]

"We are generous gods...you may develop a game that isn't an always-online, MTX-riddled piece of shit. But just this once."

 

[eyeliner]

I believe they saw a massive train wreck incoming and proceeded to make the game single player just as it's predecessors.

Not a genius was needed to see that this game, like every other in it's style, wouldn't be in any way, shape or form, a success as an online experience.

Unless they sold horse armor.

 

[Deleted member 534570]

Thank goodness. If only Ubisoft would follow suit with Beyond Good and Evil 2...

 

[DarkCoffe64]

I allow EA to crawl back into the rotten a-hole of hell and never come back again, thanks.

"We are generous gods...you may develop a game that isn't an always-online, MTX-riddled piece of shit. But just this once."

Just because its gonna be a single player game, its not gonna stop them to add this kinda bs to it, lol.
They're more like... trickster gods, ala Loki.