The action MMO Anthem was planned in 2019 as a major service game for Electronic Arts. It was supposed to lead the RPG studio BioWare into a new era. 15 months after release, the game seems almost forgotten. A mention of Anthem in the current financial report for Q4 2020 underscores this.
This was the mention of Anthem: EA presented the current financial report: It covers the period from January 1 to March 31, 2020, which is Q4 2020 from EA’s perspective. Calendar-wise, it’s the 1st quarter of 2020.
In the report, Anthem is mentioned only once, as EA explains why they earned so much more money last year in the same quarter compared to 2020:
[…] Sales of PC games and console downloads generated $190 million in revenue, which is 11% less than last year, driven by the launch of Anthem […]
Blake Jorgensen, CFO of EA, during the current earnings call
That’s why it’s so bitter: There is no statement from EA about the future of Anthem, only about how much money EA earned a year ago with the launch.
This accurately describes the situation of Anthem: Money was made with the game, but development has stalled. After all, Anthem was actually intended and advertised as a “evergreen”.
This is an unfortunate situation for players. Surely EA cannot be satisfied with this either.
Anthem, a game for 10 years, remains without new content
This was the expectation for Anthem: What BioWare and EA hoped for from Anthem can be seen in the original working title of the project. The game was known as “Project Dylan”; like the songs of singer Bob Dylan, Anthem was supposed to be timeless and always remain relevant:
- BioWare had planned Anthem as a game for 10 years.
- EA wanted with Anthem to have a game in their portfolio that, like Destiny for Activision and The Division for Ubisoft, generates ongoing revenue through microtransactions and a large player base.
This is how it went: Anthem launched on February 22, 2019, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One with some hype and certainly considerable success. But it quickly became clear that BioWare was overwhelmed with the project. For Anthem apparently was finished at the last second and there was no content prepared for the time after launch, as a ruthless insider report suggested.
Although the launch version had strengths in gameplay loop and the world, the core mechanics of the game like the rewards and progress system suffered from serious issues. Additionally, there were technical difficulties: It was even said that Anthem would “destroy PlayStation 4” consoles.
The further development of the game completely broke down. After the release, there were hardly any updates or statements from the studio. BioWare decided to first address the fundamental issues of the game and canceled the roadmap outright in September 2019, after the content supply had already fallen far short of expectations.
In 2019, the game began to disappear more and more from public focus, appearing in EA’s financial reports only as a footnote, in which EA stated: “We stand by Anthem.”
Anthem 2.0 gave players hope 3 months ago
This seemed to be the turning point: In February 2020, a bigger sign of life came, but also with a catch. BioWare announced that they would revise Anthem, developing an Anthem 2.0 that addresses the major issues of the game.
However, it was also stated that it would take a while and during this time there would be hardly any real updates for Anthem.
This is how it has been since then: The announcement came in February 2020. Since then, EA and BioWare have been silent about Anthem. There are no signs of life from the game of any kind. Except now in the financial report the mention of how much money the game made in 2019.
We reported on the overhaul of Anthem and why the title is still more important for EA and BioWare than it seems now: Anthem is apparently “too big to fail” for EA and BioWare – and that’s good for us.
