I completely disagree, everything was better, the combat, your party, the story, The UI, dragon age 2 WAS way better then origins.

I like them.

Bioware is one of the few companies who can really get me to care about their characters. Even with all the faults of their games, the character interaction, like scenes aboard the Normandy or the Ebon Hawk, are just fantastic. I love Mass Effect, KOTOR, and Baldurs gate.

That being said, I do dislike aspects of their games as well. Obviously Mass Effect 3's ending wasn't good, at all, but I don't feel it ruined the journey leading up to that point. ( I choose to believe the indoctrination theory. I don't believe that's what the developers intended for the ending, but I choose to believe it anyway.) And Dragon Age 2 wasn't as good as the first one, though still enjoyable. Also, Jade Empire was awesome.

I'm not optimistic about their future, but I wouldn't count them out yet. They still have plenty of time to turn around, and to improve. They also have time to get worse.

We'll see.

I feel ambivalent: they've made some of my favourite games, but they've also made some questionable decisions. I think my main concern is their somewhat antagonistic attitude to their customers (DRM, day one DLC, Molyneux-style promises about what to expect) which could ultimately cause them problems.

You do realize that the dev team changed a lot don't you?

Could be the merging with EA, some core members are still around or scattered across different project teams but they did bring in loads of new bloods. I doubt there's a "turn around" for Bioware. The name of that company is but just a name now.

Used to love them. Baldurs Gate, NWN, Jade Empire, their sonic game, the initial Dragon Age. They've really started to decline lately though, which is sad. I will say though, that I laugh hysterically inside my head at those who whine about ME3's ending. It's their choice to make an ending that they want to. It's their game, not yours. You bought it, congrats, that doesn't mean they should be forced to change an ending just because of you. I mean, good grief, until the last few years, the idea of something like that would have been to preposterous to even comprehend. All the social platforms that allow random haters to spew whatever they want to nowadays though, has apparently given way to the belief that consumers should dictate how a game ends, and not the developers themselves. I mean, can you imagine people trying to protest the ending of Legend of Zelda, or Super Mario Bros, or Mega Man back in the 80's and 90's? People would have been laughed under the table and out into the woods.

I disagree. Just because there's a lot of new people on the team doesn't necessarily mean that the studio is "doomed." Now i'm not saying that we should be optimistic, especially given EA's track record of acquiring studios.

I don't think it's time to start doom-saying quite yet though. Personally, they still have another game or two to prove themselves to me.

QFT, people these days believed they get to finger around just because they paid the money. Well they didn't pay enough to be the predominant shareholders to make decision for the companies, try harder.

Have you visited their website? I'm not saying they're doomed, but they changed, a lot. From managerial structure to teams makeup.

It's not so much the ending itself, but the fact that it's exactly what they specifically promised it would not be. (a few endings that are the same for everybody, not affected by your choices in the game)

Seems there's quite a long history of media outlets changing their product after customer feedback, be it literature, music, film or television. I don't see why games would be any different. It's not an either/or regarding acquiescing to demands or completely ignoring them, but I think there should be some balance.

I enjoy the older Bioware games. Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Kotor and Jade Empire are the games I will never forget. Dragon Age was my last Bioware game after that the company just aimed for a different customer. I can't help but feel they have gone downhill in the last few years. That or what I want out of games has changed. But games these days has made me cynical. If what the mass market wants are games like CoD and 'streamlined' and 'immersive' then I don't know... who are these people who are asking for these games!? I know they sell but who is asking for them? I am certainly not.

And I thought I was the only one!

I see a developer that has set sights on a specific demographic: the teenager. I think they take shortcuts, succumb to lazy design, and increasingly so. Even ME1 and DA:O showed signs of this. Then, after playing other quality RPG's, I discover their writers...actually svck. I mean they just svck. The plot arc in ME2 ( otherwise a great game) the ending of ME3. This is bad writing plain and simple. Black and white consequence everywhere. Trite romances. I expect DA3 to be one step removed form Harry Potter and Eragon.

Inheritance has gotten extremely dark.

I personally don't hate them, I don't think that they svck and I don't think that all of their employees deserve to be fired just because they haven't entertained some people enough.
I've been saying that I enjoyed Dragon Age 2 since I got to the CD, I haven't gotten any undue amount of flaming.

This about sums up my opinion, except I would say DA:O was one of the best games of the last decade; DA2 was OK, a lot of fun, just suffered in comparison to DA:O. (and from being way overpriced when it came out)

Just got ME3 (1/2 price) and if I could return it for a refund, I would - way too much a "shooter", like the old "quarter eaters". And the day 1 DLC rip off REALLY REALLY gets me P.O.'d: $10 for ~ 1 hour of gameplay (according to reviews I read anyway), with what I would consider a key squadmate and an important part of the story: so Bioware basically wanted $70 for the game.

Add up the trends, and I can't see myself buying more Bioware games in the future

Personally I think it's sad that Mass Effect was the last solid RPG BioWare will release. After working so hard on it for so long, I'd hope they want to see it through.
BUT
If I made 380 million dollars selling a company I'd worked very hard on, I'd probably start releasing crap games too. After all, it's not MY company anymore and I sleep on a pile of money so... I'm good.
I can't say it's the right thing to do, or even the best thing - but I can't fault someone for doing the same thing I would.

For people who work in entertainment business, if they can't entertain most people who pay their checks, they'll have to go. That's pretty much what's going on in larger part of the gaming business.

Better Business Bureau disagrees, Bioware came to their senses (far too late). Looks like you were wrong.

Edit
Not to mention the question isn't if its their game or not, that isn't the problem. The problem is the ending didn't live up to the advertising. Not to mention no one ever said they owned it. Also considering it was the public who were going to be buying it, they have a certain degree of say in what is and isn't a bad ending. Artists have listened to complaints all the time and in every media from books to movies and music and made revisions. Why is Bioware exempt? Anyways I tire of this and it hasn't begun. Disagree all you like, we won. I'm just too damn tired to explain it to yet another person for the 25th billionth time.

Interesting, good that you liked it but personally i felt Origins was too cliche and DA 2 was like doing side quests all game through didn't really feel like a good story plus i couldn't stand any characters in either DAO or DA 2 i just wanted the option to mute them all and now both games just gather dust.

I liked cullen the best in both of the games.

I like BioWare. I still think they make good games. Personally, I was a huge fan of DA2, and still think that a lot of other RPG developers could really learn from some of its innovations, though the game certainly did have some faults and limitations.

I don't like EA, and in particular, I refuse to get Origin. For that reason, I'll probably never play ME3, or any of their future games. I like having all my stuff on Steam, and only really make an exception for services that actually offer some sort of useful bonus (like GoG being DRM-free and just generally super-cool).

I stopped really caring for the company when they gave Origins fans Dragon Age 2,worst sequel I have ever played to be honest.I do not really hold a company in high regards that defecates over it's fans.

The current Bioware is nothing but a hollow shell that EA has taken over. They were once great but now they have fallen.

Combat better???I was not aware making stealth in Dragon Age 2 completely pointless is classed as a improvement.Being able to survey the battlefield and lay traps at choke points was fun for me,I guess Bioware thought this was not fast enough and did not fall in line with the awesome button mentality.

They're a business. They've had their high-points and missteps just like most other developers that have been around as long as they have.

I enjoyed the Mass Effect series for what it is. I wasn't crazy about the ending of ME3, but I've played a lot of game series that were much less fun.

I loved DA:O. I didn't hate Dragon Age 2, but it got repetitive after a while and the story didn't grab me, so I took a break and haven't gone back to it. I will say that I didn't like either Dragon Age game on consoles. The PC versions are completely different games. I get the feeling that what they're trying to do with the DA series (especially the combat) just doesn't work as well on consoles/controllers.

Did I answer the question? I tend to not look at things as black/white/awsum/suxorz, so I don't really have a "they're awesome" or "they stink" or "EA ruined them" type of opinion on the matter.