So the recent meme had me do some digging. DA:I was budgeted to cost around $150-200 million in production and marketing costs but sold over 12 million units. Now, granted, DA: V has only been out a month in comparison it at the HIGHEST estimate has sold under 800k with the median estimate at about ~600k. All estimates say median $35 million GROSS revenue. Now if we were to even go crazy and say the production/ marketing cost was the same as DA:I, it would take sales to quadruple/quintuple at CURRENT PRICE just to break even. If this game doesn’t kill BioWare then we truly have a captured market being propped up by funny money, this is a Disney Marvels level fuck up.
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There is little to no chance this game will break even. If it was to have this slow uptick over a longer period of time It would need some favorable word of mouth and it is just the contrary. Most people hate it.
This is a colossal failure. I doubt EA even knows how much they lost considering it was in development for about a decade.
Another thing with this is EA said that they had no plans for DLC. A good DLC drop can boost player interest and numbers, and is usually a chance to get some comparatively easy money. But it sounds like they won't even get that.
It's BECAUSE it's so abysmal in terms of players that they won't even consider it. Even Starfield got DLC nad they are working on more. I did not play the first, was supposedly really bad but even that is more than what Wokeguard will get. This must have bombed more than we know. I don't wanna sound crazy but there's probably some who play it that got it either free or just bots in general. I could also see refunds being HIGH for this.
They were announcing no DLC plans back in September. Now, maybe they were already assuming it would be awful in terms of sales (which if they were looking objectively they should have been able to) but regardless of reason for an EA-owned property to announce no DLC plans a month before release is just crazy.
On a somewhat related note.
Obsidian delayed their new RPG Avowed. It has a lot of red flags but nothing specific about being woke:
Black female companion (in lore accurate rather then LA diversity in Medieval European setting)
Female furry character (lore accurate since POE)
No white human character
The game was presented by a dude and a white woman with nose ring and ugly haircut.
There is a possibility that they delayed the game because they want to do some last minute changes to remove woke stuff after seeing DA: Failguard
Another red flag was the game had conspicuously black voice actors.
Don't forget the sheer amount of purple in the visuals.
Is not just the purple, the graphics are to clean. It looks off
Ignoring the red flags the game just looked boring. No flair to it, felt slow also. Not something you'd want from your marketing to leave an impression like that.
Been the story for Pillars of Eternity since the series' inception. That alone was my reason for writing off Avowed.
Wokies are acting like concord is the new definition of failure. As if a game like DAV only losing a few tens of millions of dollars - as opposed to 200+ million - is some kind of victory.
When you have Square Enix coming out and saying a game that sold several million copies was a "financial disappointment" then anything under a million with that kind of a budget is a colossal failure.
If only sony didnt make ff7 rebirth playstation exclusive.. its been loke 2 years, but i guess the plan all along was ps5 pro. And if they didnt nerf panties with shorts.. and if they didnt insert random gays and ugly blacks around. Shit.. if every black female npc looks like barrets wife, wouldve been nice.
Rebirth launched in Feb 2024. It's been less than 10 months. There were about 19 months between PS4 and PC release for Remake. Probably Summer 2025.
Has it just been 10 months? Damn lol. Seems like an eternity.
It might depend on the province, but they probably get massive subsidies from the government.
I believe those are mostly from BC and Quebec, and Bioware is located in Alberta. They still probably get some federal funding at least though.
The game spent the better part of a decade in development and was restarted multiple times. Factor in the marketing they did for it, and the game will most likely not break even for a while... if at all.
That said, Mass Effect is a much larger IP than Dragon Age. So, even with DAV's (most likely) financial failure, I can see EA still dragging Bioware's carcass forward to push out another sequel in the pursuit of more money.
I can’t. Andromeda was such a colossal fuck up that if anything this solidifies that they can’t even sell 1/5 of the copies of a mediocre title a decade ago.
I get what you're saying. My thought process was that they (execs) would give Andromeda a pass since it was done by Bioware Montreal and not the Edmonton studio that made the originals. Don't get me wrong, everything Edmonton has worked on since has been ass, but I can still see them giving the studio "one last shot" with the more proven IP.
How much do they gross per copy after I guess steam takes their cut and whatever else happens?
Their net per copy is usually ~20-30% less based on sales. Steam charges based on their current sales would be a 25% cut. PS and Xbox usually charge 30% outright.
Ah plenty of room to make money .
Wasn't that not even a good Dragon Age game? I bought it. I guess for whatever reason I bought it is why they sold 12 million.
It was extraordinarily mediocre compared to 2 which was extraordinarily mediocre compared to Origins, at least in my opinion.
EA will prop bioware up to satisfy overall esg score. EA's other games can be slighty slighty less woke.
... so did they guard the veil or what?