Former BioWare Developer Reveals Why EA is Pushing For More Multiplayer Games

Have you ever wondered why gamers have been seeing more microtransactions in open world games lately? It's because it works, and according to a former BioWare employee, EA has been pushing multiplayer because of it.

During an interview with Waypoint podcast, former BioWare developer Manweir Heir stepped forward to discuss the studio's direction, the closure of Visceral Games, and EA's pressure to bring more multiplayer games. Heir claims that the company has been deeply invested in open world multiplayer games because it's proven to be the easiest way to monetize gaming:

They are generally pushing for more open-world games. And the reason is you can monetise them better. Why do you care about that at EA? The reason you care about that is because microtransactions: buying card packs in the Mass Effect games, the multiplayer. It's the same reason we added card packs to Mass Effect 3: how do you get people to keep coming back to a thing instead of ‘just' playing for 60 to 100 hours?"

A recent example is the Star Wars Battlefront II beta's loot system that many players complained about. While some players don't mind to "pay to win", many are criticizing the games' microtransactions.

"You need to understand the amount of money that's at play with microtransactions," Heir said. "I'm not allowed to say the number but I can tell you that when Mass Effect 3 multiplayer came out, those card packs we were selling, the amount of money we made just off those card packs was so significant that's the reason Dragon Age has multiplayer, that's the reason other EA products started getting multiplayer that hadn't really had them before, because we nailed it and brought in a ton of money. It's repeatable income versus one-time income."

Although Heir didn't reveal big-scale figures, he claims that one player once spent $15,000 on Mass Effect's multiplayer cards. That's pretty ridiculous but as long as players are buying microtransactions, EA will probably keep pushing open world multiplayer to the point of hindering creative direction, which Heir believes negatively affected the design of Mass Effect Andromeda. BioWare originally wanted to create a prequel to Mass Effect, but the pressure to implement open-world concepts ruined that plan, and that's a huge part of why Heir left BioWare after seven years with the company.

Read more: Bioware Puts An End To Mass Effect Franchise