It’s been a few years now, and the controversy surrounding Mass Effect Andromeda still hasn’t subsided. Now Tom Taylorson, the voice actor who gave voice to the male Rider, joined the discussion. In an interview with the fan resource We Are Mass Effect, he spoke frankly about the fate of the game: without diplomacy and without notes.
According to him, Andromeda “got kicked in the teeth undeservedly.” The game was released raw, not allowed to finish, and immediately trampled.
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EA and the Frostbite Engine: Why Mass Effect Andromeda Development Went Wrong
Taylor is not shy about the wording: BioWare Montreal is trapped between EA’s inflated expectations and the technical problems of the Frostbite engine. According to him, the studio was “set up by a publisher who expected too much,” and the game itself was “pushed out the door unfinished.”
It’s not just emotions — Andromeda development was really really painful. Frostbite, EA’s enterprise engine of the era, was created for shooters, not narrative RPGs. Many developers at BioWare simply did not know how to work with it at the right pace. The team literally learned on the go as the clock ticked by.
The original trilogy was created on Unreal — the team knew the tool like the back of their hand. It was different with Frostbite.
The toxicity of the gaming community has finished off Mass Effect Andromeda
Even if the game had been more polished, it could still have gone badly. Taylorson is convinced that Andromeda has become the “punching bag of the week” for a part of the audience that was hunting for content in the “delivering a new game” format.
Tellingly, the actor draws a direct parallel with his other project, the Highguard shooter, which was similarly demolished before people had time to play it. According to him, “the love of hate” turns games into a sacrifice even at the start.
The toxicity of the gaming community is not a new topic. But when a person who has been on the other side of this wave twice talks about it, the words sound different.
The failure of Mass Effect Andromeda: five reasons according to actor Tom Taylorson
Taylorson lists the reasons for the failure very specifically:
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EA demanded too much in too short a time
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The Frostbite engine was not suitable for RPG storytelling
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The team did not have enough experience working with this tool
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The game was released with serious technical problems
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Online haight finished off the game’s reputation even at the time of its release
Each of these factors individually would be manageable. All together, they became a death sentence.
Rider’s Fate and the Cancelled DLC: how EA closed the project
For Taylorson himself, the closure of the project was a personal blow. He expected to play Ryder for a full decade—as part of a new trilogy set in the Andromeda galaxy. Instead, EA curtailed support, canceled the planned story DLC, and that was the end of Ryder’s story.
“You’re just moving on. You’re only as good as your latest project,” says the actor. Without bitterness, but with the fatigue of a man who has been going through this for several times.
At the same time, he notes: Over time, the audience’s attitude towards Andromeda has changed. A community has emerged for whom this game has become “their own” — the one that helped in a difficult period. Taylorson calls it “the seven out of ten phenomenon that comes at the right moment.”
Mass Effect 5 and the legacy of Andromeda: what BioWare will take from the failed part
BioWare is currently working on the fifth installment of Mass Effect. It will not be a direct continuation of Andromeda, but judging by the hints, the events of that game will somehow be reflected in the new project. The franchise is trying to restart — and this time the studio clearly needs to do everything right.
We’ll find out if it works. But Andromeda’s history has already become a textbook example of how publishing pressure, inappropriate tools, and a toxic audience can destroy a game before it has even had a chance to truly prove itself.
