If you're a fan of EA and BioWare cooperative action-RPG Anthem, we've got some sad news to share - BioWare is officially ending development on the game, cancelling its planned redesign of the title.
The studio announced the news in a blog post earlier today, explaining that the pandemic "has had an impact on our productivity", and not everything the team had planned for the game can be accomplished as a result.
"During the development we’ve provided updates revealing some of the team’s work through blog posts and conversations with you on social media and it’s been inspiring for us to see the positive reactions and feedback. I’ve been incredibly proud of the work the team has been doing, and excited to see and play each new build of the experience.
2020 was a year unlike any other however and while we continue to make progress against all our game projects at BioWare, working from home during the pandemic has had an impact on our productivity and not everything we had planned as a studio before COVID-19 can be accomplished without putting undue stress on our teams."
BioWare had been working since the end of 2019 on a "fundamental restructure" of Anthem, but rumours started circulating earlier this month that EA had reached a point of potentially having to abandon the project.
Fortunately, for those who still enjoy playing the game in its current state, BioWare says it will continue to keep the Anthem live service running as it exists today, but obviously there won't be any major updates moving forward.
How do you feel about this decision? Give us your thoughts down in the comments.
[source blog.bioware.com]
Comments 24
You either have to go all in like Bethesda did with Fallout 76 and Hello Games with No Man's Sky to fix it, or you gotta just end it's misery. Anything else, would just further tarnish the brand. Seems for the best that they put all their focus into making Mass Effect "4" the best it can be to turn the Bioware ship around.
Wow. I bought the game under the impression they were going to improve it. It wasn't wishful thinking, they literally said they were going to redesign and make changes. With them walking away from Andromeda and now Anthem I have absolutely no faith in the Bioware team. For me personally, I won't spend over $10 on any new release they make. Their quality no longer matches their asking price.
What a dumpster fire of a game, a total crash n burn. This reminds me of Evolve.
@Trmn8r Well these guys kinda first stated they are going for the all-in approach but apparently did this only to save face immediately after the launch.
@RedShirtRod Well to be fair, while I understand your feeling. after Andromeda it was clear they don't go back to fixing this thing.
@JayJ I don't even remember that game now.
pretends to be shocked
@BrilliantBill Yeah, not everything is fixable too. But agreed
@RedShirtRod By the time it got to that point where they were doing damage control and said they would fix it, you could get the game for like $5-$10. So, if you paid full price at that point, that's on you.
I wonder how many more failures it would take for Bioware before they get shutdown or seriously limited in the future. They have been making DA4 since ages and their ME new game is probably very early stages. They better get things right.
@BrilliantBill it's just strikingly different leadership at EA and Ubisoft are. Andromeda is a singleplayer game so I understand calling the quits early but an open world multiplayer game is different. Both Divisions came out in a sorry state but the teams were given the resources to improve. I have no problem paying more when a company has earned my trust.
@Trmn8r I bought it for $8. I wouldn't have paid that. I meant I wouldn't pay over $10 from a perfect game from Bioware. That's how low I consider them.
This is total bs how long are we going to let the pandemic be an ok excuse every time a company doesn't want to do the right thing it is the pandemic bs nonsense just say the truth were not willing to fix it because it is too much work and money. I never played anthem but I do remember them promising to fix it. I am done with Bioware and EA in general they just run stuff into the ground and if it can not be madden or fifa ultimate team gambling packs they do a ***** job.
@Insightful to be fair the game was in development for 7 years and made no real progress… read the Kotaku story on it very in depth….. want to say i bought anthem for 100$ Us. Got the special edition as what i saw in demos looked awesome game was fun to a point but the game had no content and still to this day has very little content and that’s its biggest issue no content at all you finish the missions and without multiplayer there’s no reason to keep coming back no reason really to get the better gear other then to say you did and right now as we stand there is next to 0 player base tried a few days ago and found nobody to team up with me….now that’s boring.
@RedShirtRod Well, there you go. At least you didn't have to pay full price for it. I get nervous with Games as a service games. So many fizzle out. So, I held off til reviews came in and they were not good.
@Insightful I don't think EA is really to blame here. The Bioware just has tendency to procrastinate and waste time on ideas that don't work until eventually have to ship the game with whatever they have done so far.
@RedShirtRod honestly, any "Anthem Next" was almost certainly going to be a fully priced release not unlike what Destiny and ESO do, and like those, it would contain the original content for free.
Point being, buying it cheap because they wouod fix it was not going to work out great.
At least you can still play the part of the game that exists since they are not shutting down the servers. I hear the story arc is actually very good and worth experiencing.
@Insightful yea extremely quickly me and my cousin played the game from launch in feb2019 i think it was two months later we were having issues getting groups, and we also along with community every time we drop a boss would say Purple Rain!!! As the loot system was busted…eventually within 6 months the game was essentially dead! And they never really produced anything on their roadmap, and we never saw anything past QoL. Updates after that. For them to try and blame COVID well F them that’s not what happened, instead of going all in and fixing the game like No Mans Sky or FF XIV they did what they did for the 7 year production cycle they pissed on our shoes and told us it was raining……I literally will never buy a BioWare game again…
@Tharsman not at all the story is ***** and has been references to ***** that never exhisted and about half the story makes no real sense or has no point at all, like its leading somewhere but they forgot where half way through their joint they were smoking….
I liked the premise, the controls, graphics, the single player aspect, but quickly went down hill into transactions (buying and selling, never did micro-transactions!) then grind, then sponge monsters and 45 minutes on those boss battles
Balance was totally wrong to begin with, a patch or 2 made things better (equipment screens)
Glad to see the back of it
It was a digital gift, if I'd have had the disc, it would have been traded a few months in to catch a good-ish price on the hype
Wondering what will happen if I boot it in a year?!
It sucks for anyone who bought Anthem that they won't get the version of the game they were hoping for, but at the same time was anyone really expecting a story of redemption here?
I haven't played Anthem myself, but I did spend a good chunk of time watching my wife play it (which she did to completion) and it was evident to me that this game was fundamentally broken in so many ways that there's no way that EA was going to fully invest the resources required to overhaul it.
Again, it really does suck, but it really should act as a cautionary tale (like we needed another one) against pre-ordering and buying into the pre-releaae hype; the primary goal of publishing and/or developing games is to make money and this was further proof that a publisher and/or developer will spout any old bullsh*t to get consumers to put their hands in their pockets.
Such high hopes.
@Tharsman I would have been cool with a $40ish "expansion" that both fixed game breaking bugs and added much needed content. To me, making a bad game isn't a sin. It's making a bad game, dropping it, and moving on that frustrates me. I mean, look at ME3. At the time it was supposedly the end of the trilogy and they still went back and put effort to fix the ending. It's why I have Andromeda a shot.
It's like they're saying "sorry we sold you a lemon, but the next one you buy will be great!" No, I'm going to remember that the last one was worth less than I spent and will adjust my spending accordingly. What's sad is I would happily spend more if I felt the company was trying to improve.
Another GaaS made of hot air. Who'd have thought?
Seemed like it was kinda beyond saving to me. You really need to get it right on the big first launch, or it's really hard to recreate that same hype. Especially several years later.
I guess it goes to prove that you cannot polish a turd...
If they are abandoning it, then they should give it away for free now
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