In cases when a game has been canceled or left unsupported,
fans are usually left with nothing to fill the void. There have
been rare cases, however, where publishers have seen fit to
release additional media outside the game to tie up loose ends.
One such example was Mass Effect: Andromeda, the fourth
entry into BioWare’s beloved sci-fi series. Andromeda suffered
from a buggy launch version and character writing that many
fans felt was lackluster compared with the original trilogy,
dooming it with mediocre review scores from the outset.
Although BioWare worked quickly to patch the game’s worst
issues, it underperformed in sales and the Edmonton-based
team was reassigned to work on the studio’s new IP, Anthem
(which ironically also bombed on release). Attacks on social
media targeting individual members of the dev team and EA
staffers further muddied the water, forcing BioWare to release
a statement that branded the behavior as ‘unacceptable’.Fans were left waiting indefinitely for Andromeda DLC that
never arrived, leaving a number of key plot points unresolved;
mostly revolving around the Quarian Ark, a giant spaceship
that had gone missing sometime before the start of the game
and which had been expected to make an appearance in a
future content expansion pack.
BioWare officially confirmed in August 2017 that no DLC for
Andromeda would be released, but there was a silver lining
to this cloud: a trilogy of prequel books set in the Mass Effect:
Andromeda universe, exploring a range of stories prior to
the events of the game. The last of these, Annihilation, would
explain the fate of the Quarian Ark, with author Catherynne
Valente offering some canonical closure to fans who wanted
more. The Mass Effect series will continue despite the misstep
that was Andromeda, with BioWare announcing in 2020 that a
veteran team of developers was working on a new game.GETTING CLOSURE
A lack of development for Mass Effect:
Andromeda left key plot points unresolved.featuring the hockey-masked horror icon Jason
Voorhees. With a pre-built player base of classic
horror fans, initial performance in 2017 was solid
if not spectacular, and players expected plenty of
post-release content drops, including plans for
new game modes and cosmetic items.
Through no fault of game publisher GunMedia,
the slasher game had to be put on hold as a result
of a legal battle in 2018 between Friday the 13th
co-creators Victor Miller and Sean Cunningham
(screenwriter and director of the original movie).
Miller claimed he was the owner of the Friday the
13th IP, which was disputed by Cunningham, who
had greenlit the game’s production. With ongoing
lawsuits over intellectual property, GunMedia was
forced to cancel all planned updates. Although the
publisher continued to release bug fixes, fans were
left out in the cold.Miller won the lawsuit, but the damage was done;
dwindling player counts saw GunMedia shutter the
game’s dedicated servers and end ongoing support
in 2020. Peer-to-peer matchmaking remains an
option, but with fewer than 200 active players on
average, the future looks bleak.
We could go on: Bethesda’s lost Prey 2 prototype
that eventually emerged as the brilliant 2017 Prey
reboot; Amazon Game Studios shutting down its ill-
fated attempt at hero shooter Crucible less than six
months after release; the catastrophic failure that
was BioWare and EA’s massively-hyped Anthem.
Wikipedia’s ‘canceled video games’ category page
offers hundreds of entries, many of which never
made it beyond early development. As gamers, all
we can do is hope that our own favorites won’t get
dropped—and if they do, graciously accept defeat
and move on to pastures new.JUN 2022 MAXIMU MPC 45
© BIOWARE, EA