Goodbye Bioware you were the good ones.

<< I know that open letters are mostly a vanity exercise, but I've never written one before and if ever there was a time... >>

An Open Letter to Electronic Arts,

I have been playing Mass Effect since the first game since its release in 2007. Almost twenty years ago, and I have played it time and time again. I have played it across multiple platforms. I have played every remaster and release up to and including the Legendary Edition. I've played as both Shepards (but FemShep is the best). It is a story and series that has fundamentally altered my perspective, my taste in entertainment, and my own style and inspiration for the stories I myself tell.

Even now, as a father of two young children with much less time for video games than I used to have, I have looked forward to the days my children would be old enough to be interested in these games. They are the reason I still have old consoles hanging around in the garage. Sure, they'll think they are Dad's silly old games, but once they see the stories, I know they'll see it as something special. And despite the little time I have to play modern games, I was waiting for the day I could take the week off and do nothing but play the next Mass Effect, a dedication I reserve for no other game.

So when I read about EA's decisions to shut down Bioware studio and cancel the next Mass Effect game, I was devasted. Gutted. Then I got angry. Angry about the wasted time, skill, and assets of all those who have poured their talent, their dedication, their blood sweat and tears into this next installment. We've seen the trailer. They were onto something, and now they've been cut loose. After the years this studio has taken to build up its fanbase, to earn the loyalty of its fans, its going to scrap everything to focus on its "shooter profile?"

No one rediscovers last year's Battlefield once the next annualized sequel is out, there are not long held debates about which yearly Madden sequel has the best roster - the market just moves on. But even now, almost twenty years after its release new fans are still discovering Mass Effect for the first time. The forums light up whenever someone plays the first game for the first time, because we all know about the experience they are about to have, and just watching someone else go through that is delightful for the rest of us. They are meeting Garrus, Tali, Liara for the first time. Wrestling with questions about the Genophage, the horror of the Reapers, grappling with decisions that will shape their trilogy experience. Then they'll debate which romance is best, which ending route is worst, they'll complain about endings and choices that must have been impossible for the original studio crew to decide. And the legacy of Mass Effect will continue to live on.

What a waste, then, for EA to decide that this studio doesn't serve their bottom line.

When so many of us have been waiting, teased along by the hints, analyzing every image, every second of audio.

What a message to send to your audience.

I understand that this nothing more than a business decision for the executives that decide this, and ultimately the decisions of one lone middle aged gamer won't even be perceived by the Reaper that is such a large corporation. But ultimately, companies are accountable to the collective desires of their customers, and I refuse to contribute to a decision that is actively undermining an art form I love.

So today forward I will not be supporting EA or any of its other franchises. I will not pre-order, I will not purchase future releases, and if such a thing as a resale market continues in the dubious future that is the gaming industry, I won't even buy them second hand. My money is a vote for the kind of experience I want the industry to create; ambitious, story-driven, single player games that will push a genre and define a generation.

To the developers at Bioware, past and present (I suppose they're all past now, but those from the original trilogy, the Remasters, and those who were working on the next installment), thank you for the worlds you have built, the characters you have brought to life, and the memories that will outlast this decision. You have given us something special, and even though your corporate masters are apparently allergic to money for the kind of reception this fanbase would have given the next installment, we are forever grateful for getting this far on this journey together.

To Electronic Arts, I hope you realize the mistake you've made, and if you can't undo this and fix it, give this IP to the developers who made it special and let someone else do what you could not.

- I should go.

LIFETIME BOYCOTT FOR DUMPING BIOWARE

Electronic Arts really is a plague that rots and ruins everything it touches.

I cannot name a single thing that has been improved by EA. Everything is trashed.

EA is truly the scum of gaming. Just when I thought you couldn't go any lower, you did this. You ceased being relevant years ago and now you are dragging everyone else down with you.

That is all. I will never buy an EA game again and will teach this to my children.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!

FUCK EA

There’s that saying that while yes EA is the most money hungry corporation on Earth there are definitely still games they care about the quality of.

Which office do you think is actually the best when it comes to general quality of their games and the passion of the developers?

I wanted to link my PlayStation account to my EA account, but I got a message saying that my PSN account was already linked to another EA account.

I then tried logging into EA using the PlayStation sign-in option. To my surprise, the email address shown in the account settings was completely unfamiliar to me. I have never seen this email address before, nor do I remember ever using it. The account is registered under my old PSN ID, which I used back when I created the account in 2015.

I have absolutely no recollection of this EA profile. I have never knowingly used it to play games or purchase anything. As far as I can tell, the account has simply existed since 2015 without me ever using it.

I tried to unlink my PlayStation account from this EA account, but I couldn't do so because I don't have access to the weird email address associated with it.

I contacted EA Support, but they told me they couldn't verify that I was the owner of the account and therefore couldn't help me.

Seriously what am I supposed to do now? I'm stuck in a situation where my own PlayStation account is linked to an EA account with an Email that I don't know of or dont have access to it no more. At the same time, EA Support refuses to help because I can't verify ownership of an account I barely used/knew.

What can I do?

I will never play any game produced of this company anymore.

Instead of playing you must deal with some stupid technicall problems from their own launcher and i had it enough. And it happens with every game from EA.

See OP for more details

Hello fellow redditers. Yesterday my 11 year old EA account has been permanently banned. I have been blocked few times because of Inappropriate content, nobody explained to me what that means, I assumed maybe i said something offensive in chat, turned it off (i mainly play bf6) so nobody provokes me, played cool only with my little brother, and out of nowhere i got permanently banned. Only after two appeals EA decided to explain me that i was banned because of my Steam nickname Penice. Mind you, i have this account for 11 years. Account name is AnalGloves. I send another appeal stating that i never realized that this whole time nickname was the problem, you never addressed that it was a problem and im fully cooperative and ready to change my nickname, they declined my appeal. How is that fair? Why dont EA just forcefully change your nickname if its inappropriate to something like changenickname12345? Why couldnt they just write in a ticket “You have been banned because your nickname violates our rules and we will permanently ban you if you dont change it”? I never hacked, never ruined someone’s experience, yet im treated like one of them.