The action MMO Anthem was released in 2019 for PS4, PC, and Xbox One. However, after just a few months, development was put on hold. The game was actually supposed to be reworked at BioWare Austin and further developed as Anthem Next or Anthem 2.0. But EA decided against it in February 2021. Four years later, after Dragon Age: The Veilguard, we know: that was a serious mistake, says MeinMMO author Schuhmann.
That was actually the plan for Anthem: The plan was for BioWare Edmonton to develop the core framework of the MMO, after which the team would switch to Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The further development of the MMO was supposed to go to BioWare Austin. The team there had previously worked on Star Wars: The Old Republic. A roadmap early on outlined several important content updates.
This is how it actually went: Anthem was released in such a deplorable state that BioWare abandoned the actual content plans early on and stated that Anthem needed a fundamental overhaul. This overhaul was supposed to culminate in a kind of relaunch of the game, in an Anthem 2.0.
The most important person leading this overhaul was Christian Dailey, who expressed confidence that he and his team in Texas would manage it. Essentially, the goal was to replace the systems for player progression, items, and the reward structure that were not working with established MMO systems.
However, Christian Dailey was taken off Anthem 2.0 in December 2020: Personnel gaps had emerged at Dragon Age that he needed to fill. Without Dailey, EA then decided in February 2021 to halt the development of Anthem.
Many fans still regret this decision: Because Anthem had a functioning and fascinating gameplay loop. Furthermore, the game impressed with its core design, player experience, and atmosphere. In general, many believe: With better MMO systems, Anthem should have worked.
EA removes the head of Anthem, sends him to Dragon Age, but he doesn’t stay there
Why is this so bitter? EA’s decision ultimately resulted in a lose-lose situation. Because Dailey, the most important man for saving Anthem, didn’t stay long with Dragon Age. Just a year after his transfer to Dragon Age, he left BioWare altogether.
Today we know that the cancellation of Anthem did not free up the resources that would have led to Dragon Age: The Veilguard becoming the financial success EA had hoped for.
The game fell significantly short of EA’s sales expectations and BioWare was subsequently hollowed out, with many employees being laid off.
The employees that EA actually wanted to send to Dragon Age: The Veilguard apparently did not stay there long.
Dailey and his crew open a new studio after the end of Anthem
What is Dailey doing today? Dailey and many of his former employees have now founded their own studio in Austin, Texas: Skeleton Key. The studio is backed by “Wizards of the Coast”, the license holders of games like Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons.
What the studio is working on is not known. They are said to be AAA games.
If you look at the LinkedIn page of Skeleton Key, many employees on the management level have worked at BioWare until 2022. One senior character artist was even at BioWare for 22 years (via linkedin).
The end of Anthem marked the beginning of the end for BioWare
What we know today that we didn’t know back then: The decision to cancel Anthem brought no strategic benefits for EA. Because the developers they pulled away did not stay at the company but instead founded their own studio.
Ultimately, the decision to shut down Anthem so early and thereby lose so much trust was a loss on all levels for EA.
Not only was the potential of Anthem wasted, but this decision also initiated the end of BioWare as we know it:
- We do not know what might have come out of allowing Dailey and his team to develop Anthem 2.0
- But we know that the decisions made by EA led to Dragon Age: The Veilguard being a financial flop and that a functioning and successful studio in Austin was practically given away to the competition
- EA, which has now lost 20% of its stock value in one day because their cash cow FIFA let them down, could really use the revenue of a live-service game like Anthem in the meantime
Whether many people still work at BioWare Austin is unclear. In 2023, they halted the development of the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic and handed it over to another studio.
It seems that the core of the studio in Austin has moved to the new studio Skeleton Key. Even with the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, which was long developed at BioWare Austin, the collaboration with EA apparently did not meet BioWare’s expectations: The former head of the MMORPG said that the game was neglected by BioWare and EA despite earning a “mountain of money”.
