It’s widely known that the latest Mass Effect installment did not experience the most stellar of launches. Many fans criticized the title for its facial animations, an overall sense of being rushed, and much more. That said, BioWare’s Mark Darrah has recently taken a break from his Q&A spree about Anthem on Twitter to put the spotlight on Andromeda and why it wasn’t received as well as anyone had hoped.

“First off, the question was not “is MEA secretly a great game and did mean Nintendo make us fail?” MEA is a deeply flawed game. Especially at launch,” Darrah stated on Twitter. “But the review environment was crowded. Nier, Nioh, Horizon, and Zelda all launched in MEAs window. Each does something better than MEA (again, a flawed game).”

“As a result, even systems that are pretty decent get scrutinized against superiorly implemented ones. Does launching in a different window turn 72% into 90? Certainly not. 72 into 77/78? Maybe,” he continued. “Does that affect sales? Some. But word of mouth matters so much these days.” Ultimately, as Darrah noted, that’s the nature of the beast.

And here’s the thing. That’s the nature of the industry. You don’t have full control over when you launch and no control over when others do. DAI benefited by how tough a year 2014 turned out to be for games.”

“You launch the best game you can. MEA has a lot of problems and got lapped by genuinely better games,” he said. It’s not what everyone likes to hear, but it’s good to see BioWare admitting their mistakes, and it’s even better knowing they’ve learned from them. The company plans to ensure Anthem doesn’t end up like Andromeda, and we’re sure they’ll have the same mindset moving forward with the Mass Effect franchise.

As for Anthem, we’ll be looking forward to its release on February 22, 2019 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Keep it tuned to Don’t Feed the Gamers as this story develops, and for other gaming news going on right now, check out the following:

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What say you, gamers? Do you believe the timing was off with Andromeda? Did BioWare mess the game up that badly, or did you still find it to be a rewarding experience? Sound off in the comments section below, and be sure to follow DFTG on Twitter for live gaming and entertainment news 24/7!