Even EA/Bioware realized that this wouldn’t work. That’s how we ended up with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which was switched mid-development from live-service to a singleplayer game.
It’s also really important to stress that the whole live-service fiasco that was Anthem was Bioware’s idea, not EA’s. In fact, most of the decisions and mistakes that led to Bioware’s demise can be traced back to studio leadership and culture, not the publisher. “Old” Bioware (up to around Mass Effect 3) was successful despite being a complete mess, with projects often only coming together at the last minute and always under extreme crunch. EA bought a studio that was already like this, always has been like this - and the publisher actually tried to preserve the studio’s “magic” by being very hands-off, only to get blamed anyway.
They’d figure out a way to turn it into an online live-service hero-based pvp extraction shooter.
Even EA/Bioware realized that this wouldn’t work. That’s how we ended up with Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which was switched mid-development from live-service to a singleplayer game.
It’s also really important to stress that the whole live-service fiasco that was Anthem was Bioware’s idea, not EA’s. In fact, most of the decisions and mistakes that led to Bioware’s demise can be traced back to studio leadership and culture, not the publisher. “Old” Bioware (up to around Mass Effect 3) was successful despite being a complete mess, with projects often only coming together at the last minute and always under extreme crunch. EA bought a studio that was already like this, always has been like this - and the publisher actually tried to preserve the studio’s “magic” by being very hands-off, only to get blamed anyway.