Strange Girl Gaming

Are Bioware determined to make sure that their established game titles fail? It sure feels that way with the recent news in regards to Dragon Age 4. I personally didn’t mind Andromeda, I know many people didn’t enjoy it, leading to many complaints and a cancel in any future DLC plans for the game, but why did Andromeda fail so hard? Well the simple answer to that was that the veterans who worked on the fantastic trilogy were stripped away from Andromeda to focus their efforts on the forthcoming title Anthem, ME:A was left to a bunch of newbies who didn’t have any experience with the series and lacked experience with the frost bite engine. This naturally was going to end in disaster, replacing the original team with a bunch of new comers was never going to end well, looking at the reception ME:A received it is clear that a disaster is exactly what people believed Andromeda to be.
Recently thanks to the talks of Mark Laidlaw the former creative Director for Dragon Age it has become clear that Dragon Age 4 could well be in trouble. He has left Bioware stating that it was the least disruptive time for him to leave on account of the reshuffling the company is having internally once again. This involves the restructuring of the teams, much like Mass Effect Andromeda. Veterans of the Dragon Age series could well be tasked with working on a different title rather than the much anticipated fourth instalment into the fantasy franchise.
Clearly the replacing of the veterans for the much loved science fiction series led to some disappointing results which has ultimately left the future of Mass Effect up in the air at best, six feet under at worst. After those disastrous results why on earth would Bioware be considering another rework to their design teams? Dragon Age 4 needs to be the perfect game, Anthem and DA4 are the companies last chance to get things back on track. I know that all newcomers need to start somewhere but clearly starting with the next instalment of a much loved very well known franchise is not it, or at least not without a good chunk of the original team still there to guide them.
I know that it is a case of only time will tell but based on the results of last years Mass Effect: Andromeda I am suddenly feeling rather worried for the future on one of my favourite franchises. Mass Effect is easily in my top 3 favourite franchises with Mass Effect 2 being my favourite game but I have no problems admitting that while I may have enjoyed Andromeda for what it was, it was in no way anywhere near the level of the trilogy and my concern now lays with Dragon Age following a similar path. But perhaps with Casey Hudson being the current GM of Bioware there is some hope for DA4. If the new team sticks to the lore of the world, then perhaps there is still a chance for a fantastic game, the groundwork is already there in that regard. The team behind Andromeda had no lore to turn to, they needed to create an entirely new galaxy, a more challenging prospect I believe.
Ultimately it is going to be a long waiting game, all we can do is stay up to date with any news that may be announced about DA4. One thing is for sure, I can’t see it entering the development stage for a while if Bioware do go ahead with their planned restructure.