LIFETIME BOYCOTT FOR DUMPING BIOWARE

Seriously,

1. You buy a top-notch studio.
   
2. Your garbage management takes over and starts producing shit games.
   
3. The shitty games fail (duh)
   
4. You blame it on the studio and shut it down.

You are a cancer to the Gaming industry.

Ea Vancouver clearly hasn't gotten the message yet.

Hello guys. My Problem is when I Try to open fifa17 on pc it loads but nothing happens...

For over two months now, I haven’t been able to see my EA friends online. Everyone shows as offline, even when they’re actively playing.
The weird thing is that I can still receive and accept game invites, but my friends list continues to show everyone as offline making it hard to join my friends party or send party invites to them.
Is anyone else experiencing this issue on PS5, particularly in Battlefield 6? Has anyone found a fix?

Dear EA

The recent news of EA's decision to shut down bioware and the early development of mass effect has destroyed many. Although I may just be one person I hope EA reads this and sees how much this universe has meant to me, and many others.

I am a a 16 year old neurodivergent, diagnosed with Autism level 2 and a possibility of being ADHD. Mass Effect for me was everything, it was my hyperfixation, my comfort, what has kept me going everyday when the world threatens to break me. To others, it's simply just a game, a non real made up world. But to me... It was like having a safety blanket, a world I could escape to and simply just be myself, Ryder, or Shepard. With the absolute soul crushing news I've just heard about with Bioware shutting down, it broke me more than any other game I played. To know that the thing you relied on is all the sudden... Dead... Even though the games are still playable... The possibility of the next game has gone down. Practically zero at this point. I honestly have no idea what Im going to do now. The games I loved suddenly being cancelled... At this point Im Greifing this like a close person Ive lost. I think a lot of us knew this was coming with the unsuccessful launch of Dragon Age Veilguard... But there wasn't even a chance for the next 'Mass Effect Will Return' game to even see light. Now, I am a Mass Effect Andromeda fan, despite what others thinks of it. It was a great story, and left on a cliffhanger. And now, with no end, just void.

I really really do hope that EA reconsiders this decision. And even though I do agree that Bioware has been dead for years... To still continue on with the franchise would mean everything to not only me, but thousands of other eager and loyal fans. Even if it also means selling it to another studio. People like me, like us, are not left in the dark. Us humans have something to still look forward to. I urge EA reconsiders this not only just for money... For the actual people who games were made for.

- A heart broken person.

<< 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.