The lead producer of Anthem, Ben Irving, recently announced his departure from BioWare. With this, a well-known and important figure leaves the company. The community is hotly debating Irving’s departure, as the head of Anthem has been highly controversial among players since his days with the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Who is taking their hat off? On August 15, Ben Irving announced via Twitter that he will be leaving BioWare after eight years. He received an “exciting opportunity” to join another game developer.
Irving was previously the lead producer for the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic before taking the same position at Anthem. In this role, he was “the face” of the action RPG and communicated with fans on Twitter and Reddit before the launch and was seen in many live streams.
Irving’s departure is currently a hot topic among Anthem players. The producer had a difficult standing in the community.
This is why Irving was controversial: Before his position at Anthem, Ben Irving was the lead producer for SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic). When he transitioned from the MMORPG to the shooter, some players were relieved: they blamed Irving for decisions that were poorly received by SWTOR fans, such as Galactic Command from Patch 5.0. This update completely changed the reward system at the time and introduced RNG loot boxes.
Irving also stumbled at Anthem. When players asked why some features from the trailers are missing in the game, he replied that some things in the game were not as they were during development. However, this was not because BioWare was not honest at the time, but because the features had changed during development. Players often recall this with the “Cost of Transparency” meme.
A small outcry in the community occurred when Ben Irving implied in a tweet that there would also be armor sets in the Elysian chests. The BioWare developer Chris Schmidt then spoke up and clarified that there would be no armors in the chests.
The cosmetic Elysian offerings were added with update 1.04/1.06 to Anthem and removed again with patch 1.1.1.
Players discuss Irving’s departure
This is what the community says about the departure: Players on the Anthem Reddit and our readers on MeinMMO have already exchanged thoughts about Irving’s departure. Various factions have emerged, interpreting the departure differently:
- Some players are worried about Irving’s transition to another developer. He was the figurehead and face of Anthem, and the departure of such an important person is always a bad sign for a game.
- Other players are cheering over the departure. They blame Ben Irving for some of the unpopular decisions made at SWTOR and Anthem.
- Other freelancers see the lead producer’s change as an opportunity for Anthem: new people could bring a fresh perspective to the development.
One of our readers, Alex, says, “Bad news? There could hardly be better news; his work was terrible at SWTOR.”
Gres Nim, on the other hand, states, “Change of the lead producer? This is good news. We must not forget that FFXIV 1.0 was also a complete failure. Anthem like Realm Reborn! If it turns out well, I might eventually get it too.”
