I really can't see this ending well for Mac Walters or the Bioware Montreal team. While I feel for the people that will likely lose their jobs its clear they bit off way more than they could chew and just were not ready to develop a game of this scale and budget. Looking on the bright side at least Mac Walters might not be able to wreck the franchise anymore.
Regardless I'm sure ME:A will debut to stellar sales based off the name alone enough so to ensure that EA gets theirs (is mildly profitable) but the damage has been done and just like AC: Syndicate before it it is the next entry that will actually suffer the consequences if there is one.
Yep, agreed. But I expect Mac Walters will somehow turn this into another promotion, selectively citing all the positive reviews and focusing on the technical limitations of Frostbite. Based on how he was promoted after the ME3 debacle, I can only believe post-EA Bioware is essentially leaderless or unable to understand the market.
Edit: Put another way, I bet their management focuses too much on sales. Which will be good because the series had momentum and there a lot of uninformed buyers as well as a dedicated ME fanbase. But they would need to start looking at the trend, and realize this wasn't some weird backlash against ME3 that will fade, but rather the result of boring characters, dialogue, and overall plot. Of which the blame would have to lie primarily on the creative devs.
But I think Walters can cite ME1 as a reference point and how this is just the first step, ME1 wasn't perfect so it's not surprising this one isn't either, etc etc. That journalists were using ME2/3 as the reference, and how that's difficult to live up to because he did such a great job on ME3, etc. And lastly how the real issue was he wasn't able to fully implement his vision for ME:A and needs to be given more control and resources for ME:A2. My guess is it won't be for a few more games before this sort of argument falls flat and by then he can be hired elsewhere to infest some other franchise.