2. The Genre is Oversaturated
Now, you could say that every action genre has too many games in it. True, but MMO's are designed to hold players' attention for years a time, so EA releasing a new game amongst well established games would likely lead to failure. Although the Mass Effect franchise is high profile and older players would be attracted because it is Mass Effect, so many other MMO's would likely triumph over Mass Effect Online. All MMO games feature similar gameplay, involving questing, clicking and obsessing over stats. Shooters, like old Mass Effect games, can offer a lot in terms of variety. Different cover systems, abilities, weapons, stories and general feel of gameplay can all differ. Although an MMO will feature all of these, all of it takes a backseat to the main attraction: exploration. Especially story. Most MMO's feature a weak story and one that ultimately doesn't matter, and this can be somewhat true for an RPG like Skyrim as well. Also, there have been way too many recent point and click or MMO games in recent months. Diablo 3, The Secret World, EVE Online Beta, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2 and Lord of the Rings Online have all come out in the last year, a close proximity considering the longevity demanded of the genre. It's an incredible list, considering I don't even play MMO's. SWTOR is the only MMO I have ever played, I barely pay attention to the genre and still I can name all of those. Not a good move by BiowEAr to release a new game into this mountain of multiplayer.