What Happened to BioWare? 

TL;DR: Those are not the same people who made old Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Simple as that.

I think that the problem lies more with BioWare than people realize. BioWare got 6 years to work on Anthem. How is a game that has been in development for 6 years with the funding of EA this broken and bad? I agrea that EA have been making BioWares games worse, but we have to remember that BioWare are the developpers not EA.

Only a few of us are left that remember about Baldur's Gate 2, Bioware's first big success. Sadly most of the people that worked on Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect and Dragon Age Origins have since left the company.

1:30 "But it wasn't until they were acquired by Electronic Arts that they made the games we remember them most fondly for". I have to disagree with you on that one. There are people old enough that their fondest Bioware memories are from: Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 (Published by Interplay Entertainment / Black Isle Studios) Neverwinter Nights (Published by Infogrames/Atari) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Published by Lucasarts) Jade Empire (Published by Microsoft Game Studios) Mass Efect 1 and 2 and Dragon Age Origins are great games, but their success was probably built on the foundation laid by their great early library. It was well known that Bioware could make great RPGs by the time EA acquired them.

Dragon age Origin started developing in 2002, and released in 2009, 7 years of developing , 80+ hours for single play though , 2009 GOTY award winner. Ten years later Anthem, start developing on 2012, released in 2019, 7 years of development. Disaster, insulting, unfinished, buggy, lies, lack of content. Bioware what happened?

They really haven't been a great studio for almost a decade. ME2 and Origins were the last true Bioware games we'll ever get. It is an impossibility that the studio will ever release something of this caliber again unless they rehire all the people who were involved in developing and writing those games, as they are basically all gone. The few that are there are no longer in positions where they are the ones creating Bioware games.

Truth is Bioware lacks the talent, plain and simple. Everyone always wants to blame EA. Yes EA is a bad company, but Bioware had 6 YEARS to develop Anthem and look how it turned out. Games like the witcher 3 and the division 2 took half of the time and they are way more polished. Bioware isn't the company we use to love. It's time to face the facts and move on.

This video wasn't a masterpiece... ...but it was a solid 9/10

BioWare has been dead to me for a long time now, too many of its talented and original members have gone and left, with some far-left nutcases here and there. Dragon Age has not been good since the first game and they let an inferior and clearly less-experienced branch of the studio work on Andromeda. It is going to be nigh impossible to ever expect another KOTOR in the true vein of the originals, much less with EA around.

Screw Anthem. Play the goddamn Dragon Age series man.

I heard the director of the new Dragon Age game came out on Twitter and literally said he's using the next game to push his own political agenda. Sooooo......thats happening.

EA happend. Lets be honest, Electric Arts and EA are two different things these days.. EA are most definitely the furthest thing from "Art" lately. They disgrace their very own name!

EA and SJWs happened to Bioware.

you skipped over jade empire.

James, you definitely need to play the dragon age games. Dragon age origins and inquisition are masterpieces imo

I have purchased every Bioware game since 2000. Anthem was the first game I skipped waiting for it to go on sale.

I just want my kotor and dragon age origins remaster so I can play them on my ps4, I'm a simple man.

BioWare didn't just die it was murdered

considering everything Mass Effect Andromeda is a decent action adventure game and better than Anthem.

Bioware's problem is that it is a developer that specializes in making single player RPGs that is owned by a publisher that has no interest in making single player RPGs. The result is that EA makes them make games that are not in their wheelhouse and they end up not being very good. Having to use an engine that is unsuitable for RPGs just exacerbates these issues.

Anthem probably would've been a great game if it was single player and had meaningful choices like the old ME games, they coukd have easily made co-op/multiplayer a separate mode like ME 3's multiplayer

"They still are a great Studio" *Tapping X furiously*

Do you wanna know what happened to Bioware???LazzerZ happened.

Let's be honest out here , ea happened The talented team that made games like mass effect and Dragon age origins left yearrrrs ago because of ea . Ea wanted to make money and only money , the talented team wanted to get love and make money so the talented team left . Masterpieces take time but ea wanted to milk mass effect and they rushed mass effect 3 , mass effect 3 was great but it was a dissapointememt tbh it came after mass effect 2 one of the best games ever. Today bioware way different from the bioware 10 years ago

I liked Dragon Age Inquisition but even it wasn't as great as the original Dragon Age. Every since then, Bioware has been stumbling hard and it makes me worried about Dragon Age 4.

Heh....... What happened to Bioware? Ea Happened... 'nuff said nerd. 😎 Edit:Sub to Pewdiepie

This is me reading between the lines, so take it with a grain of salt. The issue Bioware is going through is likely that they have an in-house culture that no longer think they make games for the consumers. My interpretation is that they view the company as existing for the employees, and their consumers/fans are simply there to pay into the revolving system. My reasons for thinking this is the hard-line SJW that seems to permeate both EA and Bioware, but that they at the same time has no real issue with incorporating gambling mechanics. In ideological terms they are employing the negative sides from to opposed perspectives: social responsibility and capitalism. My conclusion is therefore that each project starts out with a sort of exploratory surgery in which it is more important to foster a good employee - project lead relationship, than to rationalize and fulfill part-way goals. This in the end results in the rumored "closing team" coming in and sewing together a game from all the unfinished sub-sections of the original and forgotten vision. While this speaks to a greater part of the industry as well, the issue is that the end result has far to easy a time to make money no matter the actual and objective quality. The money-woes that the industry has, has nothing to do with profits, rather the comparative profits. What the industry needs is for economic reality to set in. Which means that the infested in-house culture will be shown as less important than producing a good and competitive product. What it sadly needs is for companies that waste time and resources pursuing lofty and unrealistic goals, to be faced with the economic down-wards thrust that requires firing and slimming down both in the executive sector as well as the department sector. Leaders of the type in control at EA and Activision needs to be removed from the industry. Culture that leads to the hiring of people like Anita Sarkeesiaan (or however it is spelled) needs to be removed in it's entirety. I bought Anthem, and the core of a fun combat mechanics are there, the implementation and polish is horrendous. I will keep an eye on the game, but I do not think they will be able to fulfill the promise. So I will merely discuss it. The issue is that games for the past 15 years have only managed to sell the potential, not the realization, of what customers are longing for in a game. Games might focus on one aspect, but instead of reaching the basic quality in other aspects, they produce something that no matter how that one focused aspect playes out, the game in it's entirety is brought to it's knees. We saw it in Fallout 4. We saw it in ME Andromeda, we saw it in NoMan'sSky, and we saw it in The Division, Anthem, Sea of Thieves, and so many other games. Developers in general know how to do all these puzzle-pieces, but they cannot do it in the time they have. And that time is getting shorter since they now have to wade through a figurative sea of stupid opinions, meetings, and employees/bosses. Perhaps we will one day see a game that has "emergent game-play", engrossing stories, Mod-support, good combat, deep customization, and a large and interesting map with secrets, stories, and so on. The reason why games in the past 15 years suck ass, is the same reason why Star Wars now also sucks. There are too many people with no idea of what they are doing, with influence to side-track and derail the projects. Tl;dr: Bioware, like many other gaming companies, are a lot of time and money on projects that have little to nothing to do with creating good games. It is not a new situation. But as the companies grow, people with stupid ideas take up ever more space. The issue is that the production of games with these sizes of teams and from these well-known companies are a rather safe bet as to recuperating the costs. Stupid people make stupid choices at all levels, often in ideological opposing reasons. The industry needs to rationalize and slim down, and finally perhaps even realize the actual reason why they exist and why people buy their products.

Inquisition is the first Bioware game I ever returned. We didn't have wifi or ability to hook up my 360 to the internet, I expected it to be like every other Bioware game to pick it up and continue my narrative instead because I didn't have the ability to play online on the Dragons Keep I found out that I couldn't. So I returned it.

Dragon age origins is one of my favourite games ever made. If dragon age 4 is anything less than amazing then I'll sit in a motorway and never leave until I get hit by a car

to 2011 that was a gold period for BioWare

BioWare is gone. All the guys from the BioWare we knew and love? Gone. They had games for everyone: -You want a DnD experience? Baldur’s Gate is for you. -You want Multiplayer/MMO experience? Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars The Old Republic is for you. -You want a good non-memeable Star Wars experience and even if Star Wars isn’t for you still a great RPG experience for the Xbox? KotOR is for you. -You want a hole new experience in an eastern setting with great story, simple but effective game- and roleplay and some of the best shading imo? Jade Empire is for you -You want some traditional fantasy stories with great characters? Dragon Age Origins is for you. -You are tired from Star Trek Discovery being the worst Trek of all time and want to experience a hole new Sci-Fi universe? And even if story-driven RPGs aren‘t your thing you still want some brilliant Third-Person-Shooter gameplay? Mass Effect Trilogy is for you. -You want a bad Destiny clone? Anthem is for you...

So... are we pretending Jade Empire never happened? Also this is probably an unpopular opinion but I think Bioware downfall began not with Dragon Age 2 but with Mass Effect 2, while the game is great on his own it took away way too many roleplaying elements, it had a lot of grinding for resources and the focus on recruiting characters took away from the writing of the actual story, I mean, a suicide mission where it's possible for everyone to survive? Virmire was more of a suicide mission than the ending of ME2.

Sadly, I don’t have a positive idea on their future. Anthem is essentially the Battlefield Hardline that EA made Visceral Studios make and well...look how that ended. My sad belief is that EA will plan to shut them down. It’s not a matter of if. Only when. It’s just what EA is. A deplorable company that’ll buy you, twist and destroy everything that makes you good, and then just offs ya. My hope is that EA will give them time, but let’s face it. The first bit of news about Dragon Age 4 since it’s teaser was about the damn multiplayer. Not to mention Bioware Montreal wasn’t full of, in my opinion, very good people. I feel like Bioware is becoming full integrated into the EA machine and when the time comes, EA will happily shut them down. My only hope is that Dragon Age 4 comes out, is awesome, and I can at least have that conclusion to a great story before EA does Bioware in

Blaming EA is such a massive cop out. Developers really don't take responsibility for their crappy games anymore. Bioware's current staff just isn't as talented as their previous staff.

That kotor music hits me in the feels man

What happened to BioWare? Their old guard talent is gone. This is not the same BioWare that birthed Baldur's Gate, KotOR 1, Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1 and 2, and Dragon Age Origins. How I wish I were a billionaire, so I could seek out the OG talent from ruined studios like BioWare, Interplay, Black Isles, Pandemic, Visceral, Bethesda Game Studios, etc. to form a new studio to craft games they're passionate about and that gamers truly want.

I'm just finishing up a fresh playthrough of ME3. And for the first time, I didn't use an import. It is so good, without the ending. Its a tragic action drama. Everyone dies and there are no good choices. Every choice has loss. And it is all brilliantly done.

What happened with bioware is what's happening, or will happen, to all big game developers. The original creators with all the vision leaves/retires, and the guys left are not able to walk in their shoes

I think if games would have more options like be able to set your own server up or rent a 3rd party server or if you wish use the official servers we would be in a beter shape than we have it today. Problem is that we leave the key to our games to someone who broke our thrust over and over again.

EA is what happened to BioWare. Also they are allowing political correctness into their games as well. This is also not the same BioWare that made kotor and mass effect as many have left the company. Mass Effect 2 is my favorite game from them but it was the beginning of Bioware's decline.

The last good Bioware game was ME2, everything since has been all down hill. I didn't mind SW:TOR but it wasn't a ME or a KOTOR/DA, the people who made those masterpieces that made us fall in love with Bioware are gone, replaced by new people and the predominant ideology of the day limiting any creativity that remains.

Greed, no respect for fans, microtransactions, good writers Tire of their BS, and it's a shell of what it once was.💀😢

Most of their best games happened before EA got there or really settled in. Origins was pretty much BioWare only. Knights, Jade and Gate were only BioWare. ME1 was only BioWare. ME2 was mostly just BioWare and I believe same applies to Age 2

"EA believes people want games as a service"..I don't think that's true. They made The Old Republic because they wanted some of that WoW money and they knew full well we wanted a single player Kotor 3.

Good decision avoiding Anthem, it’s bad. Over hyped with false advertising. The combat is good but gets very repetitive very quickly. It’s the Brexit of video games.

Bioware should really stand up for themselves more. Just tell EA to trust them; they've made some of the best games ever made and definitely have the capabilities to continue doing so. While I'm not 100% knowledged on why original team members have left, I would think it might be to do with these direction changes and that if control was completely brought back to Bioware then these old guys might even want to return? All a good Bioware game needs are good writers that understand the lore of a franchise, then other departments really just need competent workers (and some talented voice actors). Of course, a talented sound director and artist are also very important, but to be honest, even Anthem seems to have gotten those things right (at least on the artist side).

With MassEffect Andromeda i still thought it was Ea. By Anthem i realised it was Bioware itself.

EA doesn't want masterpieces. EA wants shovelware.

Man, this vid is sad, I loved Bioware. Grade A stories, but, how the mighty have fallen. We miss you Bioware and may your RIP when EA consumes you

I feel like Biowares downfall was always chasing the latest trend instead of sticking to what they did best. Im sure it was mostly EA looking at other games printing money and basically telling Bio "DO THAT!". ME3: action oriented with online coop. Clearly Call of Duty inspired DA2/3: bad God of War clone and then trying to copy The Witchers open world TOR: bad WoW clone Anthem: Desinty clone

EA really needs to shut down and let bioware and DICE give more time to complete a project because rushing projects won’t save the company and I hope EA learns from this

EA didn't force Bioware to make Anthem, they did it by themselves.

Dragon Age Inquisition is the worst of the series because doing anything in that game felt like doing chores, boring, dull and a necessity, rather than people wanting to do it.

But the problem it is with Bioware, you can see the steady decline in their stories throughout their games, you just can see it more prominent in Andromeda and in Anthem. They're making stories with high stakes but the characters don't take it seriously, you can have jokes of course just look at the first mass effect with the council calls but overall the story is take seriously, in these newer games it's like is all a joke.

I'm sick and tired of people blaming only EA when Bioware is just as responsible for the shit they release at this point.

Honestly, I want to see more put into SWTOR. I know you hate mmos but I have enjoyed the ongoing story. Now not everything they have done I like. Like I think they could take a few ques from other games like GW2 and ESO on game play and cashshop. But I love the story thus far and the thing I love about mmos is an ongoing story to a char I created instead of one created for me like Revan. And the only way the story for a char I created to continue is in an mmo. That is one of the main reasons why mmos are so appealing is you are the charater creator not the publisher.

Pretty simple actually, all of the talented people who made Bioware great starting with the Baldur's Gate series back in 1998 have left. Now it appears to be a bunch of EA robots who lack the talent and passion for creating RPGs the original Bioware founders had. It's shocking how far the talent has dropped when you look at something like KOTOR or Baldur's Gate 2 compared to modern day Bioware, it's like night and day in the difference in quality. Unfortunately Bioware is dead, for some reason people think that there's this awesome Bioware from 2003 chomping at the bit, just waiting for their chance to shine......sorry, but they're all gone.

I agree with most of what you say, except: DAI was great, anthem isn’t a mmo bud, and the micro transactions in anthem are for cosmetics and vanity. You don’t pay to grind... now I’m not defending anthem, it is a mess, nor am I defending micro transactions, but they don’t affect ppl that don’t buy them. Its vanity...

Many key developers have given up on current day Bioware and have left, even without EA mandated restraints previous heights might be out of their reach.

Just remaster the Mass Effect trilogy, you can't fuck up a game that's already done. Just touch up the graphics and release it all together with the DLC's. Do that, and I'll forgive everything that Bioware has done over the last few years. Forgive, but not forget.

DA:I was trash. Why do people keep giving it a pass?

Either way. After Anthem I'm not buying another title until it is out and get a chance to see what's in the box.

I shouldn't believe this. But I'm hoping the next dragon age will be good. Right now I'm leaning on it being bad solely because they wanted it do be a live service game. Its sad to see what they've become.

DragonAge2 started it all, then MassEffect2 just made it clear that people do not care if there is rpg elements in there or not, just as long as its made by the big bois

I love the people at bioware, this is the 3rd time so I am making it short.bouldars gate to dragon age, to mass effect.respect to all involved.I know when pressure make you push things to quick.you guys are my heroes, every person.it crushes me that such an awesome company, gets put through this.

Wow I was asking myself this same question a few days ago. I was thinking if Bioware can release a remastered version of the Mass Effect trilogy because I don't think Bioware is not the same company, and even with that I would be scared how they would release the trilogy if they were to remaster it. I wish them hope and success

I wouldn't be shocked if Microsoft bought Bioware from EA.

Why are people so soft about a bunch of facial animations that look ok and ignore the over reaching microtransaction of EA in the tacked on MP or the bugs. MEA is somehow still the best game EA published the last 5 years.

BioWare is nothing more than just a name. All the talented and important people left a long time ago. As far as Anthem goes, a lot of the issues are BioWares fault. The only things EA are most likely responsible for are shifting the games genre from a single player game to an open world looter shooter, giving BioWare 7 years to make the game then delay it so the devs have more time, cutting up the game because BioWare wasn't going to finish, and require some sort of in game monetization. I know we like to say "EA bad company ruining everything" but honestly sometimes the devs ruin the game.

I absolutely loved Mass Effect Andromeda the only thing that was wrong with that game was they forgot to give us DLC that would close the majority of plot holes they left in the story that was the only thing wrong with the game

Cyberpunk 2077: I’m I just a joke to you 10:32

What happened to BioWare? All their talent went to Fogbank Games, simple as that...

Buddy, EA is not to blame for everything, i highly doubt that EA had anything to do with piss poor writing and shoddy game design, it's all on bioware. edit Mass effect 2 is sequel done right? You mean how the dumbed down the RPG elements, made a meh story and overall made an inferior product to the original ME? Inquisiotion a good RPG? You mean that boring grindy singleplayer MMO simulator with shallow characters? gtfo dude, last good game bioware released was DA:I

Personally I don't think Dragon age Inquisition is a good RPG they stripped away the gear system,stat points,the Persuasion,intimidation and pickpocket systems and the dialouge tree (granted that started with Dragon age 2) but even the choices you had meant nothing in the end in the 2013 gameplay reveal they showed off and teased things that weren't in the game like having to choose between securing your military presence or civilian settlements,seizing keeps more tactical gameplay it felt more like tried to improve on DA2 the crappy game instead of building on origins the actually good game in this franchise. Not to mention the one note characters and unfinished story

I think you’re not putting enough criticism on BioWare’s poor writing for MEA. Apparently Anthem is also boring and uninspired story. I don’t think that can entirely be put on EA. Although I do agree how EA is pushing these games out too soon is hurting the quality of BioWare’s games.

Well its not just EA. I know are not interested in Anthem but Anthem was in development for 6 years and it came out with barely any content, story, mechanics etc.

The myth that single player was dying was pure corporate bullshit just like the excuse of high development costs. Take for example what happened with Mass Effect Andromeda - they outsourced some of the rendering to a Chinese company which used different 3D software so the facial animations and movement glitched. How friggin dumb and cheap do you have to be to do something like that? Maybe if they spend less on marketing and more on actual development we'd finally stop seeing 15-120 minute RU-vid videos of people shitting on them. Until then, preach man.

A simple answer ? Before Bioware were creating brand, since DA2, they're just following them. Swotor was created way too late and was outdated at launch and, as, Anthem, was just following a trend. Anthem got 7 years of development and is a mess, can't be compared to any of its concurrent. The problem don't come from EA. Bioware is just an overhyped studio since several years.

EA is a huge problem of course, but the main issue is the fact that the very talented people who made the classic Bioware games are long gone from the company. Bioware simply doesn’t have the talent it once did and likely never will. I enjoyed the video well done, but Bioware also made the fantastic Baldurs Gate series and Neverwinter nights previous to KOTOR which already had them in the RPG map. Thanks for the video!

It's simple. Once EA bought Bioware the workload and impossible time tables drove all the talent out of the studio.

They're not the same bioware either. Just let them die with a whimper.

Mass Effect 2 is one of my 3 favorite games of all time (the others are The Last of Us and Witcher 3). If I could exclude Andromeda I would call Mass Effect my favorite game series of all time. It just sad to see what has happened to the creators of this beloved franchise.

Idk how you can claim Bioware is still a good studio. On what grounds do you base that off? The past 2 entrys they made prove that they're not the studio they used to be. We shouldn't judge a studio based on their previous works. But there current works.

Its pretty sad that in my opinion their last great game was mass effect 3 was that game came out in 2012 which was 7 years ago. Throughout all of those 7 years they couldn't make atleast a decent game. Smh.

Bit of a trip down memory lane this was great vid James

Fuck knows, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with hell and a hand basket.

Swtor improved massively with the Knights of the eternal empire/throne update. Turning an MMO into a heavily focused story choice driven quest line with far reaching ramifications to the future of the story and future content/updates. Again a single player game may have been better but on the other hand we're getting a longer lasting title and has become something enjoyable. (Though as a launch player yes it was bad lmao) I played day one and oh boy.

I genuinely do believe that there is so much more to the ''Fall of BioWare'' than just ''It's EA's fault''. EA certainly deserve their reputation as ''studio killers'' but I feel as though there is much more going on behind the scenes at BioWare that we're simply not privy to. That being said though, if there ever was a ''cancer of gaming'' EA is a mighty contender.

You know mass effect 2 being very succesful deeply influnced dragon age 2.This is because streamling worked well in mass effect they decided to try this with dragon age.

Someone should spam Andrew Wilson’s email with this video or just EA in general🤷🏽‍♂️

my favorite BioWare game was (and is, and will always be) Neverwinter Nights.

I fully agree I rather have rich narrative single player game then a massive multiplayer grindy game. God damm now I want to play mass effect and KOTOR for 20th time.

Saying it right now ... Dragon Age 4 is their last chance. If that game is not a smash hit, Bioware is done for good. And considering they've lost the guys who made DA what it is (David Gaider and Mike Laidlaw) things are looking pretty bleak.

Jade Empire wasn’t mentioned?

To add to your SWTOR summary: Many fans literally call it ''a bad MMO, but a great RPG''.

I respectively disagree with your MA2 assessment. While fun, it seemed weird to me that Shepard spends so much time in the game collecting interesting npcs for a suicide mission when in fact he should have been collecting ships & a kick ass fleet. He knows the reapers are coming, and its the sovereign class ships that are the true threat. I guess they wanted to put that part off for ME3. They didnt know what to expect past the Omega relay. If they had encountered an entire collector fleet, they would have been screwed. A company of space marines can handle the occasional hand to hand fighting or ship invasion. Just include 1 tech specialist and your good to go.

The last great Bioware games were Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age Origins.

Could you make a vid about what would happen if Edward was still alive and knew about Conner and went to visit

Can someone explain to me why no one sees how stupid the black and white view of all Bioware games is? They aren‘t the (story) masterpieces they are put up to be, they never were.

Why people are not trying to get EA off of BioWare??