The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2017
EA shipped Mass Effect: Andromeda with viral animation bugs and shelved the franchise
Broken facial animations went viral at launch, so BioWare cancelled the planned story DLC and folded BioWare Montreal into another studio.
BioWare · Electronic Arts · 2017-03-21
What happened
Electronic Arts assigned the newer BioWare Montreal studio to lead development on Mass Effect: Andromeda, a new entry in a franchise with a loyal fanbase built on the acclaimed original trilogy, targeting a large open-world scope for the sequel.
The game shipped in March 2017 with widely mocked technical issues, most visibly broken facial animations and lip-syncing that went viral in clips shared across social media within days of launch, overshadowing the game's improved combat and world design.
Critical and social backlash translated into a commercial disappointment that led EA and BioWare to cancel the story downloadable content already planned for the game, shelve any sequel, and fold BioWare Montreal's staff into EA Motive, effectively ending the studio's independent existence.
Why it happened
- The studio shipped with a launch-breaking animation bug that was visible in the game's very first cutscenes.
- Quality assurance did not catch defects severe enough to define the game's entire public reception before release.
- EA cancelled planned DLC rather than fixing the reputation damage, cutting losses instead of investing in recovery.
- Folding the studio into another team confirmed the failure was treated as fatal to the team, not just the title.
The lesson
The first thing players see on launch day becomes the story, no matter how much of the game underneath actually works.
Aftermath
BioWare Montreal's team was absorbed into EA Motive. The Mass Effect franchise did not release another mainline entry for years, and EA leaned on Andromeda as a cautionary example in its own later live-service post-mortems.
Sources
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