After more than a year of internal refurbishment of Anthem, EA and BioWare have decided to stop the development of the action RPG for 2019 and move on to other projects.
In an announcement made today by executive producer Christian Dailey, he explains that the decision to discontinue work on Anthem was motivated by a mix of the impact of COVID-19, and a desire to focus on other BioWare projects, such as Dragon Age and Mass Effect. .
‘2020, however, was a year different from any other, and although we continue to progress against all of our game projects at BioWare, working from home during the pandemic has had an impact on our productivity and not everything we did before COVID- 19 as a studio planned. can be achieved without putting unnecessary strain on our teams, ‘he wrote.
“I know it will be disappointing for the community of Anthem players who were excited to see the improvements we worked on. It is also disappointing for the team that did a brilliant job. And for me personally, Anthem has brought me to BioWare, and the past two years have been some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my career.
“Game development is difficult. Decisions like these are not easy. If we are to move forward, we must focus our efforts as a studio and strengthen the following Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles while continuing to update Star Wars: The Old Republic. “
Dailey also notes that Anthem’s existing live service will continue to function as it does now in the foreseeable future.
Anthem had a rocky launch, plagued by bugs and criticism that although the fight was interesting, his story was a knock and that the endgame did not have the chops to sustain the game in the long run. While the game stumbled through 2019, EA finally decided to revamp Anthem at the end of 2019. It took a year to completely change the core loop of the game and systems like loot, guests and social elements. Earlier this month, EA reportedly reviewed the state of the game and subsequently called for a halt to development at that point.
In an exclusive interview with IGN, Laura Miele, chief studio officer of EA, presented her thoughts on the closure of Anthem Development, as opposed to the decisions EA made regarding the refurbishment of the game with those who made it on Star Wars: Battlefront 2. Battlefront 2 was successfully revised after launch based on community feedback, if not perhaps as dramatic as Anthem had planned.
“What’s really important about Battlefront 2 is that we said we were going to do something,” Miele explained. “We made a commitment to players and we had to act according to what we said we would do, so our teams are clear when we say in public that we are going to do something we have to deliver. Creating new content for games can also come to a natural conclusion for different reasons and when that happens, we try to be as transparent as possible with the community and explain why. ‘
Miele then cites Battlefront 2’s community delivery as an example, saying that although the gaming community asked for more content after the launch of DICE, the studios would keep the feedback in mind for future Star Wars games. .
In contrast, while Anthem also had a community interested in revamping it, Miele says that ultimately the best decision based on the resources BioWare has at their disposal was to focus development on its other games instead.
“We believe in Anthem every time, we have invested almost a decade in this game and we are proud of the work the team has done,” Miele said. “With the launch of the game two years ago, the team at BioWare listened to player feedback and brought updates and improvements to the game.
“However, 2020 and 2021 are unprecedented years in terms of game development, so we need to give priority to both the player experience and what is best for the people working on these games. We want to make sure BioWare is able to focus on the next Dragon to make Age and Mass Effects games the best they can be, while also continuing to offer quality updates [Star Wars: The Old Republic]. Ultimately, it’s the best way to employ our players, by focusing on these fan favorites and meeting the expectations of the communities.
“Anthem was a creative risk and its challenges taught us a lot about game design and even how we can improve our development process. It benefits not only developers but also players.”
Miele spoke at length about EA’s relationship with its gaming communities and goals to adjust based on the feedback from fans in the rest of our interview, which you can read here.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.