This world is full of false advertising, missed promises and lowered expectations. The minute Bioware was tried to pass the ME:3 ending off as art made this whole "thing" a joke. Bioware has the distinct disadvantage (or advantage... depends on the situation) of having some of the most intelligent people on this planet as their customer base. Sure, a few make it out of the cracks, but for the most part, Bioware found a niche market and marketed almost entirely to them.
Over the last two iterations of Mass Effect, there have been 'things' that just didn't seem to belong to the franchise. In Mass Effect 2, they cut out the RPG elements of the game and replaced those elements with more dialog and better gameplay action. The people who were not a fan of these changes could easily overlook them because the core of the game was still intact. When Mass Effect 3 came out, it was changed further. Multi-player was added, support for the kinect was added and the RPG Elements and conversation elements were further dumbed down, replaced with a load of auto conversation and actual OPTIONS to remove any conversation choices at all. Once again, this kind of stuff can be overlooked.
Unfortunately, ME:3 also stuck to it's schedule (or lack of) and delivered quite possibly the worst thing imaginable. They delivered an ending that did not fit into their own product. It was obviously rushed and (see above: very smart fanbase) they made the mistake of claiming it was "art" and "you just don't get it". The problem here was, most of us got it just fine - but it was still rushed, had too few options and all three endings were exactly the same.
Broken promises, lowered expectations... just like any company who forgets about the product and only concentrates on the earnings. Make no mistake, EA flat out TOLD bioware that they must make X % return on Y schedule and Z budget. If bioware does not make these numbers, bioware is no more. It's a hedge fund calling the shots, folks. Every time you buy an EA title, you are supporting the very thing that is destroying our innovation and our economy. If you lower the consumer's expectations over time, you can do this and no one blinks when they get that POS from china or india.
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