EA Addressees The Future Of MASS EFFECT In The Wake Of ANDROMEDA's Failure
Executive VP Patrick Söderlund, who is the gatekeeper of what games get greenlit by EA, comments on whether Andromeda was the end of Mass Effect.
Speaking to Game Reactor, Electronic Arts' Executive Vice President Patrick Söderlund broke his usual policy of adressing online backlash and addressed the controversy surrounding Mass Effect: Andromeda. Patrick acknowledged that while the game certainly had a lot of areas that need improvement, the version of Andromeda that exists today, after several updates and patches, is a worthy addition to the ME franchise.
He also stated that Mass Effect is such an important and popular franchise for EA that it wouldn't make any sense for the publisher to put it on the shelf for an extended amount of time.
Still, some gamers are quick to point out that similar statements were made about Dead Space and there's been no news on that IP since 2013.
Here's Söderlund's statements to Game Reactor:
"Well I think, my personal opinion is, I think that the game... I usually don't do this, but this is one of those places where I feel like the game got criticised a little bit more than it deserved. I think the game is actually a great game. Yes, we have to acknowledge the fact that there were some things that maybe we could have done better, absolutely, but as a whole, if you go in and you buy the game today with everything that's in it today, I believe that that's a game worth buying, personally. So that's the first thing I'll say. The [second] thing I'll say is, for Mass Effect as a franchise, that has such a big fanbase, and you know I've seen people saying 'Oh, EA's not making another Mass Effect'. I see no reason why we shouldn't come back to Mass Effect. Why not? It's a spectacular universe, it's a loved [series], it has a big fanbase, and it's a game that has done a lot for EA and for BioWare."
"What we need to be careful though of is, whenever we bring Mass Effect back again, we have to make sure that we bring it back in a really [relevant] way, and in a fresh, exciting place. That' my job, and that's Casey's [Hudson] job, and BioWare and the Mass Effect team's job, to figure out what that looks like, and that we don't know yet, but we will."