GETTING CLOSURE
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 MassEffect: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 MassEffect:
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 MassEffect 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.