Not a huge surprise once I read that it was going to EA management for a decision. The problems with Anthem as a living world game were deep. It wasn't like a few tweaks were going to fix it.
Not a huge surprise once I read that it was going to EA management for a decision. The problems with Anthem as a living world game were deep. It wasn't like a few tweaks were going to fix it.
In my completely cynical and totally irrational mind and unfair opinions concerning Anthem Finally. Good riddance. As a long time fan of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series, I had an irrational...
In my completely cynical and totally irrational mind and unfair opinions concerning Anthem
Finally. Good riddance.
As a long time fan of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series, I had an irrational hatred of Anthem because of its effect on the aforementioned franchises.
Mass Effects Andromeda’s numerous issues were a direct result of BioWares decision to put their main teams on Anthem and left Andromeda to a team that had only done DLCs for Mass Effect.
BioWares statement regarding Anthem claimed that they were rededicating their efforts back to Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and SWTOR. Which I can’t fault. Mass Effect is a legendary series. Dragon Age hasn’t quite reached the same levels but is still a very well received franchise.
Anthem's failure should give you cause for concern about the future of Mass Effect and Dragon Age. For however well received those prior games were, Bioware made Anthem. It was an unmitigated...
Anthem's failure should give you cause for concern about the future of Mass Effect and Dragon Age. For however well received those prior games were, Bioware made Anthem. It was an unmitigated disaster and it's now being left behind as such. Bioware also made Mass Effect Andromeda, which wasn't quite the same disaster, but not a great game and similarly dropped like a bad habit.
Believe me, it does give me cause for concern. I've seen many fans lament that opinion that the BioWare that delivered us Baldur's Gate, Jade Empire, KotOR, etc is dead. EA is not known to be...
Anthem's failure should give you cause for concern about the future of Mass Effect and Dragon Age
Believe me, it does give me cause for concern. I've seen many fans lament that opinion that the BioWare that delivered us Baldur's Gate, Jade Empire, KotOR, etc is dead. EA is not known to be forgiving of developers who fail to deliver and another flop may see EA close down BioWare for good.
Where I have some hope is that, after a lackluster Andromeda and a bad Anthem, BioWare has to be feeling the heat from EA. I hope that this will get BioWare refocused on doing what it does best. EA will get the profits they want if they let BioWare make the kinds of games that BioWare has, traditionally, excelled at making. Plus, the resources devoted to Anthem can now be devoted to DA4 and the next Mass Effect which will only help with things like crunch.
Honestly this seems like the right call. It's been more than a year since Anthem flopped, even if they did change it dramatically it would have to be really transformative to have any sort of...
Honestly this seems like the right call. It's been more than a year since Anthem flopped, even if they did change it dramatically it would have to be really transformative to have any sort of impact. And that's on top of the overall market saturation of looter-shooter/GaaS games out there now. It would be competing with Destiny, Warframe, Borderlands, The Division, and even Genshin Impact (which is free). The window to fix Anthem probably closed a while ago. And what's worse is, the core gameplay of Anthem wasn't even that bad so there isn't THAT much to fix once the major bugs are dealt with. It's failure is as much a failure of managing expectations and gamer toxicity as anything else.
The Anthem Next team includes about 30 people, BioWare said last year. People familiar with the project said it will need to expand to at least triple that in order to produce new content and continue attempting to overhaul the game. EA has not yet indicated whether it’s willing to commit that kind of budget to revive a maligned game.
Having to triple the size of the team on a Hail Mary play is just manifestly a bad decision. It would make way more sense to dedicate those resources on something without the baggage.
Not a huge surprise once I read that it was going to EA management for a decision. The problems with Anthem as a living world game were deep. It wasn't like a few tweaks were going to fix it.
In my completely cynical and totally irrational mind and unfair opinions concerning Anthem
Finally. Good riddance.
As a long time fan of the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series, I had an irrational hatred of Anthem because of its effect on the aforementioned franchises.
Mass Effects Andromeda’s numerous issues were a direct result of BioWares decision to put their main teams on Anthem and left Andromeda to a team that had only done DLCs for Mass Effect.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428/amp
BioWares statement regarding Anthem claimed that they were rededicating their efforts back to Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and SWTOR. Which I can’t fault. Mass Effect is a legendary series. Dragon Age hasn’t quite reached the same levels but is still a very well received franchise.
Anthem's failure should give you cause for concern about the future of Mass Effect and Dragon Age. For however well received those prior games were, Bioware made Anthem. It was an unmitigated disaster and it's now being left behind as such. Bioware also made Mass Effect Andromeda, which wasn't quite the same disaster, but not a great game and similarly dropped like a bad habit.
Believe me, it does give me cause for concern. I've seen many fans lament that opinion that the BioWare that delivered us Baldur's Gate, Jade Empire, KotOR, etc is dead. EA is not known to be forgiving of developers who fail to deliver and another flop may see EA close down BioWare for good.
Where I have some hope is that, after a lackluster Andromeda and a bad Anthem, BioWare has to be feeling the heat from EA. I hope that this will get BioWare refocused on doing what it does best. EA will get the profits they want if they let BioWare make the kinds of games that BioWare has, traditionally, excelled at making. Plus, the resources devoted to Anthem can now be devoted to DA4 and the next Mass Effect which will only help with things like crunch.
Honestly this seems like the right call. It's been more than a year since Anthem flopped, even if they did change it dramatically it would have to be really transformative to have any sort of impact. And that's on top of the overall market saturation of looter-shooter/GaaS games out there now. It would be competing with Destiny, Warframe, Borderlands, The Division, and even Genshin Impact (which is free). The window to fix Anthem probably closed a while ago. And what's worse is, the core gameplay of Anthem wasn't even that bad so there isn't THAT much to fix once the major bugs are dealt with. It's failure is as much a failure of managing expectations and gamer toxicity as anything else.
A previous article by Jason Schrier had this tidbit:
Having to triple the size of the team on a Hail Mary play is just manifestly a bad decision. It would make way more sense to dedicate those resources on something without the baggage.