Mass Effect Why have there been no sci-fi RPGs like Mass Effect yet?

[cyborgboy95]

I mean, in terms of lore Mass Effect universe has a diverse and unique cast of alien companions/NPCs from different alien races/civilizations. Meanwhile, current well-known sci-fi spacefaring RPGs like Starfield and The Outer Worlds have their universes mostly inhabited by humans and some alien animals at best.

Well, on December we do have Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader whose universe features many different alien species/civilizations, but Rogue Trader's gameplay (turn-based) can't be more different than Mass Effect. (third-person shooter)

I wonder why no RPG studio has tried to copy Mass Effect yet both gameplay and lore-wise, especially when Bioware is in decline. I mean, we have Obsidian and maybe Inxile trying to emulate Bethesda gameplay-wise (first-person RPGs) with Avowed, The Outer World and Clockwork Revolution, why does no one seems to do the same for Bioware?

Tbh I lost all my hope on seeing a revival from Bioware, I'm counting on Arrchtype Entertainment - founded by Bioware veterans and backed by Wizards of The Coast - to deliver us a third-person-shooter RPG with many different alien races/civilizations like Mass Effect (they do have a sci-fi RPG in development, so who know?)

 

[Reinhardt]

because it's shit.

 

[Cryomancer]

Because is shit [2]

There are a lot of good "high tech" games, Elex 1/2, UnderRail, Hellpoint and so on. Ass effect is shit.

 

[Maxie]

because the concept of a deep lore you can make multimedia projects about wholly unrelated to the game at hand (be it books, comic books, tv series, whatever) is a blight upon humanity and the biggest cancer is obviously war40k which requires all those stupid fucking fluff texts to sell their Chinese plastic dolls they don't even bother to paint

 

[Aarwolf]

We had lengthy thread about this, just here: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...ere-more-space-opera-futuristic-crpgs.123623/

 

[Roguey]

Owlcat is currently making a sci-fi third person shooter RPG.

Most publishers would consider it a financial dead end. Even Bioware itself grew to believe so.

 

[scytheavatar]

It takes tremendous effort and technical knowledge to make a third person shooter.

It takes even more to make a CRPG.

To make a game that is both a third person shooter and CRPG at the same time is something that is beyond the capabilities of most studios.

 

[NecroLord]

I hear there is this new RPG called "Starfield".
VERY unique and VERY diverse.
Space negroids? Check.
Space LGBTHQ danger hairs? We've got you covered.
See that planet? You can land on it xddd!!!
Truly a unique experience that has never been replicated.
11/10.

 

[just]

i havent had the time yet
soon

 

[JarlFrank]

I'm glad we don't get more cinematic RPGs where half your playtime is eaten up by cutscenes.

Oh wait we get a lot of those, just not sci-fi.

 

[Tyranicon]

Modern RPGdevs can't even get basic, generic fantasy settings right, nevermind lore-rich, high production Star Trek knockoffs.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Modern RPGdevs can't even get basic, generic fantasy settings right, nevermind lore-rich, high production Star Trek knockoffs.

Yes, and devs prefer to do pseudo-medieval D&D-inspired fantasy over any other genre despite the market being oversaturated with it. I can't imagine why.

 

[Lord_Potato]

After all Mass Effect was simply a Star Wars game without a licence.

 

[Morality Games]

Why have there been no sci-fi RPGs like Mass Effect yet?​

Mass Effect didn't sell that well relative to its costs and was difficult to monetize.

Pretty much the case with every Bioware game, it's why they tapered off making their style of RPGs.

Anyway, if Bioware couldn't make their thing work, I doubt anyone else can. Bioware was good at their thing if nothing else.

 

[RaggleFraggle]

Budgets have ballooned out of control and made it impossible to take any risks.

 

[King Crispy]

Why have there been no sci-fi RPGs like Mass Effect yet?

This is why.

 

[Shaki]

 

[ropetight]

Budgets have ballooned out of control and made it impossible to take any risks.

They did balloon and made it harder to take risk and make original works, but raise in technological demands, complexity and inflation are only part of it.

Most of that ballooning is the product of the "creative accounting" for lowering taxes.
Most, if not all, AAA corporations have some sort of scheme with separate companies.
One company is the owner of the IPs (usually offshore), one is publisher (multinational for arranging production contracts) and development studio that is locally based.
It only matters for them to write bills to each other, usually IP owners siphoning profits in the end.
This way they have more expenses (publisher paying for IP, developer studios paying for equipment, renting offices and other costs) which lower taxes.
By the proxy they fuck the shareholders of the development studios - if they are listed separately - which is one of the reasons for the EA graveyard.

This way, Rockstar never paid a pound of taxes in the UK while having smash hits and even getting money from government funds.
I'm sure Activision, Bethesda and EA all are doing something similar.

 

[Zarniwoop]

See that planet? You can land on it xddd!!!*

*Disclaimer: “planet" refers to anywhere within 2km of a designated landing spot.