Anthem is far from dead. Allegedly, BioWare is working on an “Anthem Next” – a major rework and comprehensive overhaul of the game.
Anthem has been anything but a success story. After a reportedly troubled development at BioWare, the game was released rather unfinished and failed to meet high expectations. Many launch issues and a long content drought caused players to drop off in droves.
In the meantime, Anthem is regarded by many as a “dead game”. Hardly anyone believes in a comeback – yet the developers likely see it differently. Allegedly, a major rework is being worked on internally that is intended to fundamentally change Anthem.
Where does the info come from? The information comes from Jason Schreier, who writes for Kotaku. He has proven repeatedly in the past that he has contacts with many developers from various game studios and has often shone with insider information. This time as well, he claims to have spoken with some employees from BioWare and EA.
Anthem 2.0 or Anthem Next
What is being said? According to Schreier’s sources, the internal codename for the overhaul is “Anthem 2.0” or “Anthem Next”, which is a large-scale plan to completely overhaul Anthem. However, many details are still uncertain. The following content is definitely expected to be “drastically” revised:
- Mission structure
- Loot
- The game world
Concrete information is not yet available, but one of the sources says:
It took us a few months to tear everything down and figure out what fundamentally needs to change. And we have already spent a few months rebuilding it. (…)
We also want to eliminate the need to return to [Fort Tarsis] after each mission and work out what a mission technically is.
It could be conceivable, for instance, to split the game world into smaller areas so that the entire map does not have to be loaded each time. This would also allow developers to change individual parts of the map more significantly if needed, without risking breaking something on the other side of the map.
However, another person stated that they are currently just testing a lot and have not yet committed to anything. Concrete changes have not yet been decided.
It is still unclear how the new content will be delivered:
- one possibility would be to release the updates gradually – as with No Man’s Sky
- or there could be a “big” expansion that changes everything, similar to Destiny with The Taken King
Officially, Anthem does not talk about its future plans.
Expansion or even a new game?
Will this be a new game? Allegedly, there is even discussion about building Anthem Next like a new game and then selling it as such – although it seems unlikely that it would charge owners of Anthem full price again.
So far, many details are still uncertain and how long this overhaul will take is also completely unknown. However, it seems clear: the developers have not given up on Anthem and are planning major changes.
It is said that dozens, perhaps even hundreds of developers from BioWare in Austin, Texas, and Edmonton, Canada, are currently quietly working on Anthem to put the game back on its feet.
A timeline for when Anthem Next should arrive does not seem to have been established at BioWare either.
What do you think? Do you think it’s good for Anthem to be overhauled and significantly changed? Or should we rather move on to a new project?
