Board 8 > Which of these 3 Bs in gaming has declined the most in recent years?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Feels like none of the three are as revered as they once were, especially after Fallout 76 for Bethesda and Anthem/Andromeda for Bioware.

Though they're going through a rough patch now, I'm sure Bethesda will bounce back with Starfield/ESVI and WoW Classic does seem to have been well received!

Not sure where Bioware goes from here, I liked Kotor a bunch, but I don't know what kind of ace in the hole they've got. What's Dragon Age's status?


---

Hard for me to say BioWare when Patrick Weekes is still on board as Lead Writer for DA4. Real question of course is when the heck that game will ever come out. I really like Inquisition though so Im holding out to see how well the Dread Wolf rises.

I cant really choose Blizzard because Ive only ever played one of their games and I didnt like it at all, and I am hopeful that Starfield and TES 6 save Bethesda.
---

Give me Mass Effect Trilogy on PS4
---

ME Trilogy on Steam looking possible at least!
Next console gen could be a nice reset for some of these too.

---

What happened to destroy BioWare aside from Mass Effect Andromeda?
---

Jakyl25 posted...

What happened to destroy BioWare aside from Mass Effect Andromeda?

Anthem
---

Oh right
---

Bethesda is becoming more prominent as a publisher and Blizzard obviously still has super popular games, so it has to be BioWare by default no?
---

I forgot anthem was a thing

---

Didn't Apex kinda steal any thunder Anthem might have had too?

---

voltch posted...

Didn't Apex kinda steal any thunder Anthem might have had too?

I'd say it contributed, yeah! I'm convinced that EA abruptly announced Apex Legends in order to help take the public sting off of what was doomed to be a bad launch for Anthem. But I think what's hurt Anthem the most -- even more than the awful review scores and tripped-up, abandoned post-launch plan -- is the apathy. From what I'm hearing, those servers have barely enough players to continue functioning as "smoothly" as an Anthem server possibly could. It's taking considerably longer for people to get groups together even on PS4.

This isn't remotely unsurprising taken on its own. But what makes matters visibly worse here is that, despite missing EA's ever-outlandish sales projections, Anthem actually sold fairly well at launch. It was in the top three best-selling games of 2019 to-date until fairly recently and it's still holding on to seventh place. Millions of people were hungry for this game regardless of it being a blatant critical thud but when the incredibly slim amount of content and downright busted loot mechanics revealed themselves to early buyers Anthem's player numbers began to plummet. It went totally out-of-vogue on Twitch in weeks!
---

pjbasis posted...

I forgot anthem was a thing

unfortunately BioWare forgot Mass Effect was a thing too
---

Now that I'm playing an MMO for the first time, I can't stop thinking about how laughable it was that Anthem's marketing team acted like they were doing something revolutionary here:

https://www.ea.com/games/anthem/news/our-world-my-story-introduction

Like, this is almost exactly how FFXIV works and I'm sure the same holds true for other online games
---

SaveEstelle posted...

Now that I'm playing an MMO for the first time

WHAT

SaveEstelle posted...

FFXIV

WHAT
---

I mean, at least two of these companies will continue to exist despite their bad blood. BioWare's already a skeleton being forced to dance by corporate. You don't get more 'in decline' than 'would not be surprising to see it liquidated'. Blizzard has strings to hold it down as well, but they have WoW to stay reliable on.

Fallout 76 is the funniest disaster, though. Seeing new headlines fills me with joy at how this can continue to go on. It's a conga line of embarrassment and failure and I adore it.
---

Fallout 76 was a disaster, but if you told me "Fallout 5 is coming out next week" I'd probably still preorder it (even though I still haven't beaten Fallout 4).

I don't think I've ever played a Blizzard game. But if Mass Effect 4 were coming out next week, I'd definitely wait for the reviews at this point.
---

Bioware will probably cease to exist within like 2 years, so I picked them.
---

Blizzcon is this week right?

Could be a huge plus for them after last year's mixed reaction.

---

Bethesda and Blizzard are both Chernobyl tier disasters at this point with literally lol-worthy business and PR decisions at every turn.

Bioware is just in the really unfortunate position of having miserable management and publisher oversight, and will likely be among EA's many murdered studios within a year or two.
---

voltch posted...

Blizzcon is this week right?

Could be a huge plus for them after last year's mixed reaction.

Well they've already leaked two big sequel announcements (Diablo and Overwatch). Maybe intentionally to build hype. I dunno how that's working out for them.

I do have to give this one to Bioware though. The other two have had huge disasters but are big enough to keep plowing forward. Bioware is dying a slow death and need a big success soon or as others said it's an actual worry they'll get shut down.

---

SaveEstelle posted...

Now that I'm playing an MMO for the first time, I can't stop thinking about how laughable it was that Anthem's marketing team acted like they were doing something revolutionary here:

https://www.ea.com/games/anthem/news/our-world-my-story-introduction

Like, this is almost exactly how FFXIV works and I'm sure the same holds true for other online games

Anthem did absolutely nothing that wasn't done better by other games.

Hell it had Destiny style public events but no way to track them on the map and no way to really do them because the world map itself was a server closed to everyone but your party, which likely queued up for some very specific quest.

Beyond that the world was dead and lifeless, flying was a novelty that became more of a chore after playing the game for an hour.

And don't get me started on the hub area. It was so slow and redundant.

Everything else was derivative of other games.

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Well they've already leaked two big sequel announcements (Diablo and Overwatch). Maybe intentionally to build hype. I dunno how that's working out for them.

I doubt it's working out very well considering this is the first I've heard of either. Then again, I could just be totally out of the loop.
---

obviously it's bungie

I feel Blizzard had the biggest fuckup of the three, but at the same time still has enough big IPs to stay afloat
---

Well now that EA games are back on Steam, what's the bioware stuff I missed out on that's must play?

Dragon Age Inquisition must be the main one right?

---

It depends on what you mean. BioWare has gone down quality-wise, but who can say they hate them? Bethesde and Blizzard are turning into genuinely despicable companies, but they've got good games.
---

I don't hate Bioware, but I do hate what has become of them.
---

As far as gaming quality dropoff, definitely Bioware.
---

This poll is too depressing to vote in.

Bethesda hurts me the most
---