After 3 months of silence, BioWare speaks out about Anthem, their failed blockbuster from 2019. The reboot is now taking shape. What BioWare reveals is partly sobering and partly encouraging.
Here is the situation in short: Anthem was released in February 2019 with a lot of hype. However, it quickly became clear that the “Everyone is Ironman” shooter suffered from deep-seated issues. The content pipeline collapsed, all plans were scrapped in September 2019, and there was a long silence.
In February 2020, BioWare announced a rework – and we are now learning more details about it.
Anthem is being developed in Texas – a team of about 30 people is working on 2.0
This is the encouraging part: The head of the rework, Anthem Next, is Christian Doley, the Studio Director in Austin. That’s where the team is located that developed SWTOR and was intended for the further development of Anthem. The main studio in Edmonton is working on Dragon Age.
Doley makes it clear that he will take the feedback of the players into account. He says he has been observing the discussions of Anthem players on reddit, the EA Forum, on Twitter, and elsewhere for a year.
He intends to change the things where Anthem is weak and to retain what players like.
It is said that the team has started working in the last 3 months and has discussed various design ideas. BioWare wants to communicate more frequently and openly now. They want to state clearly what they are working on. They will go back to the drawing board and take their time.
BioWare states: “The experience should really be different this time for players and the team.”
This is the sobering part: The team consists of only about 30 people. Although Doley says this makes them more flexible, it seems clear that one cannot expect miracles from so few people.
Moreover, Doley clarifies: “This will be a long process.”
It is also somewhat sobering that Anthem Next apparently has not been in development for long. After all, Anthem has already been in crisis and upheaval for a year, one could have hoped that they would be further along.
Sober tone, no big promises
What’s behind it: Those who were hoping for a quick fix, perhaps even in 2020, will now be disappointed.
Although EA and BioWare keep their word and are indeed continuing to work on Anthem. But it is now also clear in what framework this work will take place – this is not a huge studio that is trying with all its might to turn the successfully launched Anthem around, but a team of about 30 people.
One cannot ultimately expect miracles, no crazy new content, but rather changes to the gameplay systems.
The positive thing is that BioWare now strikes a grounded, realistic tone. The blog post is much more personal and sober than before. The expectations are clearly set.
Why EA and BioWare are still engaged with Anthem and why the brand is so important is discussed in this article.
