The action MMO Anthem (PC XBox One, PS4) is currently working on a major rework. Surprisingly, the studio head actually released images of new content in July 2020 that one could no longer expect from Anthem 2.0.
This is the situation:
- The action MMO Anthem launched in February 2019 as a “10-year” project by EA and BioWare. But the game, where everyone is Iron Man, quickly ran out of steam – updates were lacking, and the game had significant weaknesses in core areas of an MMO such as player progression, loot mechanics, replayability, and endgame.
- In February 2020, it was announced that Anthem would be fundamentally revised – in May 2020, it was revealed that a team of about 30 people is working on a reboot, Anthem 2.0 or Anthem Next.
- It was thought that the rework would mainly focus on gameplay systems and mechanics, but now for the first time, screenshots have surfaced showing new content.
4 new images of Anthem 2.0
These are the new contents: There is no new blog post or anything like that yet; the information is coming through the Twitter channel of studio director Christian Daley. This is not exactly an ideal communication channel, as some of the posts are already 3 weeks old, but they have only now truly reached a wider audience.
For instance, Dailey showed images of a new faction, the “Pirates of Blood Wind”; they are apparently space pirates. Concept art of a grenadier was visible:
A few days later, he showed the hideout of the space pirates:
Additionally, there was this landscape image from Anthem:
And here seemingly another point of interest:
Contents seem like from an expansion
This makes it strange: Such contents like “new factions” are actually not something a 30-man team would work on during a rework. Those would be more content from a big expansion, for which the team would also want to see money.
In any case, the situation with Anthem is currently difficult, as apparently only a small team is working on the reboot, while the majority of BioWare is working on Dragon Age 4. If the team is also creating new content now, it could take a long time before Anthem Next really appears.
However, Dailey mentioned that there will soon be information about the typical areas where Anthem needs to improve:
- On player progression with loot and the Javelin
- In the endgame
- In player motivation
- Or how to prevent matchmaking from being so fragmented that players cannot find groups
These are actually the classic elements of a rework that one would have expected. Space pirates would then be a bonus on top.
The situation with Anthem is puzzling. The game sold well in February 2019, but it is unclear how EA wants to continue monetizing the game, as they do not want to provide DLCs but are relying on an item shop with cosmetic items. Players who function through a cash shop, however, need a large player base to be profitable.
Therefore, the question arises how EA and BioWare will now finance the reboot, but apparently Anthem is too big to simply be abandoned:
Anthem is apparently “too big to fail” for EA and BioWare – and that is good for us
