Mass Effect BioWare Montreal's Mass Effect: Andromeda - where element zero meets trisomy 21

[Infinitron]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/mass-effect-andromeda/mass-effect-andromeda-sales-numbers

Mass Effect: Andromeda was a financial success

EA have just released their latest earnings report and it seems like Mass Effect: Andromeda was a sales success, despite widespread criticism. In PCGN’s Mass Effect: Andromeda review, I noted its flaws but still had an extremely good time with it. It seems like plenty of other people enjoyed it too.

In EA’s financials, Mass Effect: Andromeda is held up as the title that drove the company’s financials last quarter, referenced multiple times as a significant factor in generating revenue.

"Year-on-year growth was driven by the Mass Effect: Andromeda sales, captured in the quarter and by FIFA,” CFO Blake Jorgensen explains. “Digital net sales were $681 million, a new record for the first quarter, and up $113 million on the year-ago period. The increase reflects strength in live services, together with our mobile business. In addition, Mass Effect: Andromeda was a significant contributor. Full game PC and console downloads generated net sales of $111 million, 32% higher than last year. This was driven by Mass Effect: Andromeda sales captured in the quarter.”

That’s three mentions of the RPG having a big sales impact on the business. While it’s difficult to tell if the game is a financial success, EA certainly seem to be suggesting as much. It’s more surprising that BioWare Montreal have been put on ice after release, then.

As for the future, EA say they’re still focused on Frostbite powering their games. It was suggested that the game engine didn’t play well with RPGs, but there are a dozen new games from EA that are powered by the tech.

“Our industry-leading Frostbite engine is now powering development of a dozen new titles across our portfolio,” CEO Andrew Wilson says. “It is continually engineered alongside our world-class technology platform for games and services, enabling our creative teams to leverage sophisticated data and insights to conceptualise and build the most incredible new experiences for our players. And across the company, research teams like SEED are working in areas like neural networks derived from our data sets, cloud infrastructure to deliver streaming experiences, virtual humans and AI. These concepts will dramatically shape how players interact and experience games over the next five years and beyond.”

Another game powered by Frostbite is BioWare’s upcoming multiplayer shooter, Anthem, which also came up during the chat. Apparently the game will have a “contiguous open-world that is ever-changing and influenced by players.” Whether this means we’ll be affecting an in-game economy, clawing back territory from rivals, or making BioWare’s signature dialogue choices remains to be seen. It could be something else entirely - all we’ve seen so far is combat.

 

[Iznaliu]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/mass-effect-andromeda/mass-effect-andromeda-sales-numbers

Mass Effect: Andromeda was a financial success

EA have just released their latest earnings report and it seems like Mass Effect: Andromeda was a sales success, despite widespread criticism. In PCGN’s Mass Effect: Andromeda review, I noted its flaws but still had an extremely good time with it. It seems like plenty of other people enjoyed it too.

In EA’s financials, Mass Effect: Andromeda is held up as the title that drove the company’s financials last quarter, referenced multiple times as a significant factor in generating revenue.

"Year-on-year growth was driven by the Mass Effect: Andromeda sales, captured in the quarter and by FIFA,” CFO Blake Jorgensen explains. “Digital net sales were $681 million, a new record for the first quarter, and up $113 million on the year-ago period. The increase reflects strength in live services, together with our mobile business. In addition, Mass Effect: Andromeda was a significant contributor. Full game PC and console downloads generated net sales of $111 million, 32% higher than last year. This was driven by Mass Effect: Andromeda sales captured in the quarter.”

That’s three mentions of the RPG having a big sales impact on the business. While it’s difficult to tell if the game is a financial success, EA certainly seem to be suggesting as much. It’s more surprising that BioWare Montreal have been put on ice after release, then.

As for the future, EA say they’re still focused on Frostbite powering their games. It was suggested that the game engine didn’t play well with RPGs, but there are a dozen new games from EA that are powered by the tech.

“Our industry-leading Frostbite engine is now powering development of a dozen new titles across our portfolio,” CEO Andrew Wilson says. “It is continually engineered alongside our world-class technology platform for games and services, enabling our creative teams to leverage sophisticated data and insights to conceptualise and build the most incredible new experiences for our players. And across the company, research teams like SEED are working in areas like neural networks derived from our data sets, cloud infrastructure to deliver streaming experiences, virtual humans and AI. These concepts will dramatically shape how players interact and experience games over the next five years and beyond.”

Another game powered by Frostbite is BioWare’s upcoming multiplayer shooter, Anthem, which also came up during the chat. Apparently the game will have a “contiguous open-world that is ever-changing and influenced by players.” Whether this means we’ll be affecting an in-game economy, clawing back territory from rivals, or making BioWare’s signature dialogue choices remains to be seen. It could be something else entirely - all we’ve seen so far is combat.

I have the feeling that this is the game that will decide the fate of BioWare.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

So ME:A was just too successful so scrapping the DLCs and putting the IP on ice was the only possible course of action, otherwise EA wouldn't have been able to handle all the success. Understood.

 

[ilitarist]

They're obviously producing DLCs.

 

[Delterius]

Mass Effect: Andromeda might just be the Goat Simulator of RPGs.

 

[Freddie]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/mass-effect-andromeda/mass-effect-andromeda-sales-numbers

Mass Effect: Andromeda was a financial success

EA have just released their latest earnings report and it seems like Mass Effect: Andromeda was a sales success, despite widespread criticism. In PCGN’s Mass Effect: Andromeda review, I noted its flaws but still had an extremely good time with it. It seems like plenty of other people enjoyed it too.

In EA’s financials, Mass Effect: Andromeda is held up as the title that drove the company’s financials last quarter, referenced multiple times as a significant factor in generating revenue.

"Year-on-year growth was driven by the Mass Effect: Andromeda sales, captured in the quarter and by FIFA,” CFO Blake Jorgensen explains. “Digital net sales were $681 million, a new record for the first quarter, and up $113 million on the year-ago period. The increase reflects strength in live services, together with our mobile business. In addition, Mass Effect: Andromeda was a significant contributor. Full game PC and console downloads generated net sales of $111 million, 32% higher than last year. This was driven by Mass Effect: Andromeda sales captured in the quarter.”

That’s three mentions of the RPG having a big sales impact on the business. While it’s difficult to tell if the game is a financial success, EA certainly seem to be suggesting as much. It’s more surprising that BioWare Montreal have been put on ice after release, then.

'Leading' is weird way to put it. I thought sports game were where the EA's bread and butter is and those also generated most profit from micro transactions. If quarter whole was 111 million and ME:A's budget was $ 40 million, this looks very funny considering sports games are released annually. It's like they are not saying that considering budget, ME:A didn't actually sell for shit, but thanks for the sports games we can bury that 4 years and $ 40 million development costs in this quarter and still look good and it's even legal towards our stock holders!

If it were that great, and if DLC sales were that good, why disband the studio and all single player DLC? Why put the franchise in ice?

Detail about Frostbyte was interesting considering some ME:A developers putting blame on it. However what comes to EA's decision, it's either learn to use it or fuck off.

I'm curious to see how Anther turns out to be. Someone posted on some other thread here that they have also Karpyshyn back, so it may turn out to be at least partially something ME2 and ME3 was supposed to be before 'Super Mac' Walters took over. Not that I'm going to touch it even with a ten foot pole unless it's actually good.

 

[fantadomat]

Anthem will be shit by codex standards and most likely by any standards.It will be interesting to watch how bioware burns.Also looking at the trailer,face animations will be shit too.

 

[Iznaliu]

Anthem will be shit by codex standards and most likely by any standards.It will be interesting to watch how bioware burns.Also looking at the trailer,face animations will be shit too.

We know barely anything about it as of yet. BW isn't quite Beth.

 

[fantadomat]

Anthem will be shit by codex standards and most likely by any standards.It will be interesting to watch how bioware burns.Also looking at the trailer,face animations will be shit too.

We know barely anything about it as of yet. BW isn't quite Beth.

Tell whatever you like about bathesda but you get what you see.You could love or hate their games but disappointment is rarely a thing.Also they are not a sjw pissbucket.

 

[Mynon]

Since the game appears to be polished enough at this point, and opinion of it is quite different now that the initial outrage is gone, would this be a good time for some sort of official codex write-up?

Anthem will be shit by codex standards and most likely by any standards.It will be interesting to watch how bioware burns.Also looking at the trailer,face animations will be shit too.

Nice crystal ball you have there, sport.

 

[oldmanpaco]

https://www.pcgamesn.com/mass-effect-andromeda/mass-effect-andromeda-sales-numbers

Mass Effect: Andromeda was a financial success

EA have just released their latest earnings report and it seems like Mass Effect: Andromeda was a sales success, despite widespread criticism. In PCGN’s Mass Effect: Andromeda review, I noted its flaws but still had an extremely good time with it. It seems like plenty of other people enjoyed it too.

In EA’s financials, Mass Effect: Andromeda is held up as the title that drove the company’s financials last quarter, referenced multiple times as a significant factor in generating revenue.

"Year-on-year growth was driven by the Mass Effect: Andromeda sales, captured in the quarter and by FIFA,” CFO Blake Jorgensen explains. “Digital net sales were $681 million, a new record for the first quarter, and up $113 million on the year-ago period. The increase reflects strength in live services, together with our mobile business. In addition, Mass Effect: Andromeda was a significant contributor. Full game PC and console downloads generated net sales of $111 million, 32% higher than last year. This was driven by Mass Effect: Andromeda sales captured in the quarter.”

That’s three mentions of the RPG having a big sales impact on the business. While it’s difficult to tell if the game is a financial success, EA certainly seem to be suggesting as much. It’s more surprising that BioWare Montreal have been put on ice after release, then.

That almost sounds like, and correct me if I'm wrong, corporate bullshit. Companies rarely badmouth themselves in their financial statements unless they are blaming previous leadership for all the problems. If the game really made money they would release actual figures to fight the perception that it flopped. They only thing we really know is it did badly enough (technically, creatively, and financially) to get the studio shut down and the bioware GM shit-canned.

 

[Mynon]

Companies rarely badmouth themselves in their financial statements

Not really... See SE and Tomb Raider reboot, for one famous example. And no, there was no change in leadership within SE at that point. EA, too, was oft pretty open about this sort of thing. If this game massively underperformed as some claimed it did, they would not try to hide that.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Companies rarely badmouth themselves in their financial statements

Not really... See SE and Tomb Raider reboot, for one famous example. And no, there was no change in leadership within SE at that point. EA, too, was oft pretty open about this sort of thing. If this game massively underperformed as some claimed it did, they would not try to hide that.

Eh maybe. Still what they did matters more than what they say.

 

[markec]

Companies rarely badmouth themselves in their financial statements

Not really... See SE and Tomb Raider reboot, for one famous example. And no, there was no change in leadership within SE at that point. EA, too, was oft pretty open about this sort of thing. If this game massively underperformed as some claimed it did, they would not try to hide that.

You cant really compare EA with other big companies and thats because EA has its own store exclusives. Publishers like Sony or Ubisoft still depend on Steam so they cant hide their sale numbers something that EA can do with Origin.

So there is no reason for them to say their game bombed and see their stock take a hit when its easier and more profitable to just lie.

 

[Iznaliu]

So there is no reason for them to say their game bombed and see their stock take a hit when its easier and more profitable to just lie.

What if a disgruntled employee leaks the sales figures?

 

[markec]

So there is no reason for them to say their game bombed and see their stock take a hit when its easier and more profitable to just lie.

What if a disgruntled employee leaks the sales figures?

Do you honestly believe that there is any company in this world that lives by a motto "We must never lie and only tell the truth because someone might leak the truth!"

 

[Iznaliu]

Do you honestly believe that there is any company in this world that lives by a motto "We must never lie and only tell the truth because someone might leak the truth!"

No, I'm just saying that EA will never be as brazen as you assume.

 

[Jarmaro]

Maybe it's half-truth, Andromeda made enough to payback for development costs, yet it didn't earn enough if we add PR and advertitements costs?

 

[JasonNH]

I don't understand what is so hard to believe about ME:A being a sales success, despite widespread criticism. It's just one quarter. People rushed out to buy the game based on franchise name brand and discovered it sucked. It's exactly what I would expect.

 

[Urthor]

There's two big issues with Andromeda, number one the brand damage. It really brought home the Bioware complaints to the casual crowd, and EA really doesn't want that getting traction.

The other is while the game probably broke even, video gaming is not an industry where merely breaking even is acceptable. If a company invests 100 million over 4 years, 2 million in the first year then 60 million thereafter, they expect an internal rate of return of something like +15-20% or more on that capital because of the risk it's a flop, plus compound interest. A game with the budget of Andromeda which is approaching 100m would be expected to bring in at least big numbers, especially since it would have been forecasted far higher based on Bioware's past performances.

If you imagine It's probably made something like 90-150 million, the issue is that it was a) forecasted to get 200m or more, and b) the amount of shittery about Mass Effect 3's ending plus this new word of mouth is toxic for EA and the Bioware brand. They want the bad word of mouth about Bioware games to go away, fast, and the best way to do that is to cease all PR activity and pretend this game was never released, eventually people run out of stuff to gassbag about.

 

[markec]

I don't understand what is so hard to believe about ME:A being a sales success, despite widespread criticism. It's just one quarter. People rushed out to buy the game based on franchise name brand and discovered it sucked. It's exactly what I would expect.

To claim that ME:A is supposed to be a success due 100 million sales is just laughable. It would mean it sold around 2 million copies which for a game of this caliber is nothing short of disappointment.

What that article says is that first quarter of the year was more successful then the previous one due ME:A release. Which isnt hard to believe since biggest release of last year 1st quarter was Plants vs Zombies 2.

 

[Jarmaro]

There's two big issues with Andromeda, number one the brand damage. It really brought home the Bioware complaints to the casual crowd, and EA really doesn't want that getting traction.

The other is while the game probably broke even, video gaming is not an industry where merely breaking even is acceptable. If a company invests 100 million over 4 years, 2 million in the first year then 60 million thereafter, they expect an internal rate of return of something like +15-20% or more on that capital because of the risk it's a flop, plus compound interest. A game with the budget of Andromeda which is approaching 100m would be expected to bring in at least big numbers, especially since it would have been forecasted far higher based on Bioware's past performances.

If you imagine It's probably made something like 90-150 million, the issue is that it was a) forecasted to get 200m or more, and b) the amount of shittery about Mass Effect 3's ending plus this new word of mouth is toxic for EA and the Bioware brand. They want the bad word of mouth about Bioware games to go away, fast, and the best way to do that is to cease all PR activity and pretend this game was never released, eventually people run out of stuff to gassbag about.

In case investors don't get profit out of game they invested in, at least not enough as you said, then wouldn't they bitch about it and force their workers to actaully hire competent people to do game that is good and will sell? isn't it a thing which man who wants more money out of his investition would do? Like, they may not be into games, but they can read fucking reviews and hear what people say, it's obvious something got fucked up. Wouldn't they care?
Or am I missing something? This entire mess with Andromeda is beyond my comprehension, it may sell good, but it might sold much, MUCH better.
If I am to trust anything, I would trust greed of the investors, that they want more money. Straight way to get more money, make better games that will sell lol.
I feel really stupid about this, why better games aren't coming. There is market

Btw, wasn't Andromeda 40 mln $? CrowbCat made video on Andromeda and in title there's 5 years + $40M = Mass Effect Andromeda Yeah, I just found another information about 40 mln from known game journal. It seems it's 40 mln.

 

[Urthor]

I mean we instantly heard of EA shitcanning big parts of the Montreal studio, moving employees to Edmonton and generally turning it into Edmonton's slave studio, so yeah there was a big push back from EA over this. I would also be super surprised if they lay the LGBT inclusive political correct assery on as hard as they did in Andromeda ever again as well as a few other things.

Anyway, Bioware's pretty much a first person shooter studio now that they're doing EA's Destiny clone so it's pretty academic. Their pipeline is pretty much Anthem is on track for 2018, Dragon Age 4 is in production and they have KOTOR MMO doing MMO things. Andromeda's success probably meant that Montreal was going to have another game put into their pipeline after Andromeda, instead that just won't happen and they'll be a slave studio I imagine, while Edmonton takes the lead on Anthem followed by putting DA:4 into production and post release for Anthem being farmed out to Montreal to do DLC and yearly expansions and shit.

 

[Jarmaro]

I would also be super surprised if they lay the LGBT inclusive political correct assery on as hard as they did in Andromeda ever again as well as a few other things.

Was it a problem in Andromeda though? Except that scientist that would tell for no reason she was man and super stupid sex scenes, I don't remember anything really problematic about it. Well, except lgbt characters were retarded, but every character in this game is retarded. LGBT wasn't problem of this game.

 

[markec]

Btw, wasn't Andromeda 40 mln $? CrowbCat made video on Andromeda and in title there's 5 years + $40M = Mass Effect Andromeda Yeah, I just found another information about 40 mln from known game journal. It seems it's 40 mln.

40 mil is a number someone pulled from their ass and real number is probably 50% bigger if not more. Also lets not forget that that number was used for development cost without marketing which for today AAA games costs as much as the development .

So total costs for making and marketing the game is easily around 100 mil.