There are many who are hopeful that Bioware will finally “bounce back” after several years of failures, flops, bad decisions, layoffs, key departures, and just about everything else you can think of. The release of its latest RPG did stir the waters a little, as it had a good Metacritic score from critics, but fans haven’t been as kind. They’ve been dropping negative reviews in various places, including Steam, Metacritic, and Reddit. No matter what you think about the new game, most are even more anxious about Mass Effect 5, which has been promised for years but doesn’t feel any closer to release.
As we reported earlier, Bioware’s full attention is now on Mass Effect 5, or whatever the title will be called, and that should be inspiring for fans. After all, if the full weight of the studio is behind it, that could lead to something special. However, that doesn’t mean that “something special” will be released on N7 Day, the “fan holiday” celebrating the original trilogy and Commander Shepherd. Traditionally, Bioware comes out on this day to showcase something big or small about the franchise. However, yesterday, they made this post:
While that may be disappointing in the eyes of fans who need a “big update” to be hopeful again, context is important here. It was noted previously that to get its latest RPG done, it had to pull people off of other projects. So, you could argue that they simply didn’t “have the time” to create something special for N7 Day.
Plus, we don’t know what the current state or condition the game is even in! Let’s not forget that Bioware spent basically a decade on its newest title before finally releasing it a little while ago, and it’s been just a little bit shorter for this upcoming title, as the last entry dropped in 2017, with promises of something new and better coming not long after launch.
Even with the teaser trailer that dropped last year, we don’t know what it means, how it connects to the original trilogy, or whether the game’s overall quality will be good. After all, they’ve lost a ton of people who helped make the original trilogy amazing. You know, except for the third game’s ending. Plus, past reports about the current state of Bioware made it clear that the focus on characters and lore wasn’t as important, which has been a criticism of the recently released RPG that Bioware just put out.
Then again, this could all be a ruse, and we’ll get something big on Thursday.