Many have the feeling that the new loot shooter Anthem could be Electronic Arts’ response to the success of Bungie’s shooter Destiny. What do the developers at BioWare say about this? And what are the behind-the-scenes whispers?
This is the situation: In 2014, the shared-world shooter Destiny was released for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. It quickly became clear that the title would be a financial success.
Especially since Destiny is a “Games-as-a-Service” game, meaning a title that will be expanded over the years and continues to generate revenue.
This fits into the strategy of large publishers: Many have discovered live games as a new important pillar of their strategy.
Therefore, many analysts and players suspected that Destiny would set a trend that other publishers would follow: Loot shooters that would be developed over the years.
The gaming industry is known for a good game quickly finding imitators.
So it was already thought that “The Division” would be Ubisoft’s response to Destiny in 2016, and many also believe that Anthem is clearly influenced by Destiny.
This is what BioWare says about it: In an interview with the site “Jeux Video,” producer Mike Gamble states:
“Anthem was already in development before Destiny even came out […] However, nowadays games are influenced by the games that are already on the market, to a certain extent.”
This is what a leak said: In January 2018, a major “insider report” about the development of Anthem appeared on the US site Kotaku. There, anonymous sources were cited.
The report states that Anthem has indeed been in development since 2012 – meaning two years before the release of Destiny.
However, according to the report, the team sees some parallels to Destiny. This is mainly due to BioWare’s great respect for implementing such a title.
The team reportedly watched with concern as criticism rained down on Destiny 2 regarding:
- poor communication
- lack of content
- and the difficulty of giving hardcore players something to do
Especially YouTubers who criticized the game were concerning to BioWare. It likely created a feeling of unease because Anthem also fits the requirement profile that Destiny 2 could not meet at that time.
Here’s what’s behind it: Anthem is not EA’s “direct response” to Destiny, but the Anthem team sees parallels to Destiny and is aware of the problems and difficulties because they are in a similar situation.
It is quite possible that the development was influenced by the lessons learned from the successes or difficulties of Destiny.
This seems to have also been the case with The Division, which then quickly reacted to the success of Destiny, even though large parts of the game must have already been finished.
It’s probably all a bit more complicated: The games are not “clones” or “direct responses” to each other, but Destiny has changed the gaming market, and newer titles respond to that change.
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