Most old shooters did this, and I miss it. No one sees the point in a fun multiplayer mode if it can’t be a live service and perpetually monetized.

Why are we asking for live service games? The problem is that they must be hits or they disappear forever, as opposed to putting a deathmatch in the game that you could boot up whenever, have a handful of hours of fun whenever you like, and move on. This genre chasing live service is why I haven’t found a first person shooter multiplayer mode that I’ve enjoyed in over a decade.

With FC, I figured they had that audience by the balls.

Schreier’s added context to this is that FC is far more responsible for the financial underperformance than Dragon Age.

Sure, but you can add like a handful of maps and weapons, to supplement the game with what it feels like it’s missing, without having a plan to support the game with new stuff for years.

Whenever this happens, people attribute it to some change or another, but I’m pretty sure it’s basically just inevitable. If the company’s income stream didn’t depend on an ever-present player base, I’d even say it’s normal and healthy.

On my Steam Deck, or if you prefer a Switch, any game is a mobile game. You can suspend and resume quite easily, and as long as you can do the same on a phone, it’ll fit that use case just as well. My mobile use case might be killing 15 minutes at the DMV, or it might be an hour long train ride. I’ll pick the right game for the job.

There’s a lot going on here. I think other devs, Apple, and Google are all going to look at this and say it’s not the type of game people want on their phones, but I’d say that’s the wrong conclusion. If I got an APK included in the purchase of my PC games, I’d play a bunch more games on mobile, but even some of those that have mobile ports are no longer compatible with modern Android. Even some of those that still are compatible do not work with controllers, and many of those have bad touch controls. And if you narrow down that library of great games to the ones that still work and have good controls, it’s always an inferior version of the game by way of being the mobile version of it. There’s no easy standard to dock it like the Switch or to transfer saves like Steam cloud saves.

If you want this type of game to do well on mobile, Apple and Google need to make a standard, quality, easily portable mobile controller. Games need to support that controller more often than not. There needs to be a standard for docking the device and outputting to a larger screen. The device needs to retain compatibility with older software, reliably. This is at a minimum. But there isn’t really an incentive to make premium mobile gaming better, so they’ll stick with manipulative, low barrier to entry games that control well with touches, taps, and swipes.

I’m a Linux user, and I’m at the point where I treat any online component as though it doesn’t exist if there’s no offline alternative like LAN. If GTA VI has a campaign as good as the previous two games, it’s still worth it, because I’m not touching the online mode.

It’s accessible now, and I think they should nuke it again.

The comments here are something else. This event is completely independent of the sales of the game (a game that probably did just fine). She’s a director who left a company after 18 years at the end of a project, which directors often do, because that’s the best way to accept a lucrative offer without burning bridges. 18 years is a long time to stay at the same company.

EDIT: Oh, apparently this departure is a part of some manufactured internet culture war drama. Allow this from Jeff Grubb to clear the air:

Corrine Busch, director of Dragon Age, really is leaving BioWare. But I don’t think EA is closing BioWare Edmonton. Was told there is nothing solid about that part of the rumor.

In her letter, she said she is moving to a new team to work on a new RPG.

Just to give you all the timeline: Two people reached out to me directly with details about the story before I ever saw Grummz or whoever’s tweets (I have all those blocked). Regardless, their posts contained lies to fuel a pathetic culture war, so I never would’ve felt good about crediting them.