Stefan Mileschin

A story behind Mass Effect: Andromeda's troubled five-year development has revealed that the game was actually made in a year and a half. Some of the drama involved the Frostbite engine, which is described as being extremely powerful but lacking and difficult for creating an RPG: BioWare had to build almost everything from scratch, and this included the animation system, which kind of explains some things (although it is still no excuse). Shifting of original key franchise members also led to huge changes deep into production. And last but not least, the team could not get some of the more radical ideas, such as procedurally generated planets, to work properly. Ultimately, BioWare Montreal needed a lot more manpower to meet their ambition. ...most of Mass Effect: Andromeda was developed in the final year-and-a-half of its cycle, between the end of 2015 and its release in March 2017. "It really wasn't until Mac Walters came on board—and that was very much a reaction to the state of the critical path—he was really brought on board to give it direction and get it into shape," one said. "Before that it was quite rudderless." One developer interviewed for the report disputed that claim, saying that the final release was not too far off from early concepts, but multiple others stated that the crunch cycle was the worst they'd ever endured, and the usual time spent on polish prior to release just wasn't available.
http://www.hardocp.com/news/2017/06/...t_1 8_months/