Mass Effect fans vow to boycott ME5 in wake of recent announcement

BioWare has landed itself in hot water with fans, following a rocky couple of weeks.

Last year, BioWare finally launched Dragon Age: The Veilguard - a positively fantastic game.

In our review, GAMINGbible’s Emma Flint wrote, “Dragon Age: The Veilguard is exactly what we needed after Inquisition. From the moment I stepped onto Minrathous’ streets, it felt like coming home. After such an agonising wait, the franchise I adore is back as strong as ever. It respects what’s gone before while also welcoming change and innovation.”

Unfortunately, at least according to BioWare and EA, The Veilguard undersold, shifting 1.5 million copies in its first quarter - 50% lower than EA’s expectations.

This, rather sadly, led to a culling of staff at BioWare, with reportedly a somewhat skeleton crew of fewer than 100 devs now remaining.

In a report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier it was suggested that this is half of Bioware’s original headcount, with only “a small team” remaining to work on Mass Effect 5.

Already, you can see why fans of the studio might be left feeling a tad deflated, but it’s EA’s reasoning behind The Veilguard’s “failure” that’s really riled people up.

Take a look at Dragon Age: The Veilguard in action below.

In an investors call, as reported by Forbes, EA chief Andrew Wilson touched upon the game’s release.

“Dragon Age had a high-quality launch, and was well-reviewed by critics and those who played. However, it did not resonate with a broad enough audience in this highly competitive market,” he said.

“In order to break out beyond the core audience, games need to directly connect to the evolving demands of players who increasingly seek shared-world features.”

If you hadn’t yet picked up, “shared-world features” is live-service in all but name. Wilson is essentially saying that The Veilguard was held back by not being an online experience.

I don’t think it’ll come as a surprise when I tell you that that’s not at all what Dragon Age fans wanted.

Had The Veilguard been live-service, I think we’d have seen even lower sales figures.

The fear is now that Mass Effect 5 will be made live-service in some way, when Andromeda should’ve already proven that there’s no need to mess around with the franchise’s formula.

Fighting back against this, fans have set up a petition on change.org titled, “Boycott BioWare/EA if They Include Live Play and Microtransactions in Mass Effect 5.”

Very few have signed the petition since its formation in recent days, so there’s no saying whether this will actually ever reach the studio, but it’s great to see fans rallying against the industry’s obsession with live-service titles.

Certainly, there’s a place for live-service, with huge ecosystems like Fortnite proving that, but it’s not wholly what fans want.

Just look at Concord and Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League if you seek cautionary tales.

Hopefully, the team working on Mass Effect 5 will stick to its guns, creating something in the same creative vein as the wonderful original trilogy.