890°

Anthem Update - Anthem Next Cancelled

Bioware: Friends, In the spirit of transparency and closure we wanted to share that we’ve made the difficult decision to stop our new development work on Anthem (aka Anthem NEXT).

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blog.bioware.com
LG_Fox_Brazil1787d ago

A damn shame... I really, REALLY thought that the gameplay was amazing. The game had so many problems, but when everything was working, it was a hell lot of fun. A damn shame that EA killed such a promising game...

lifeisgamesok1787d ago

In my honest opinion, Anthem could have been huge had they made it a full game in the vein of Mass Effect with a fully fleshed out offline campaign

Instead it seems like they half assed Anthem to get some quick bucks

LG_Fox_Brazil1787d ago

Indeed, the story was terrible, although it had a few charming characters, but what got me was the gameplay. I really thought it was extremely fun

UltraNova1787d ago

To no one's surprise...

I really believe EA learned absolutely nothing here.

RaidenBlack1787d ago (Edited 1787d ago )

They at least could've turned it into a F2P.

fiveby91787d ago

I suppose at this point I'd rather they devote the resources towards Dragon Age 4 or the next Mass Effect.

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-Foxtrot1787d ago (Edited 1787d ago )

It wasn't even fun...

You flew around for about 15 minutes, it wore off and you were left with a shitty bare bones game. You can't kill something already dead.

What did we all take away from this everyone?

Don't buy Bioware Games Day One

StoneyYoshi1787d ago

Im so glad I only played this through EA Play or id be one upset fella.

AngelicIceDiamond1786d ago

It was hell a fun for a little while anyway. It had huge potential. I'm saddened to see it go. Not surprised but definitely saddened.

It's like devs don't know how to make functional AAA's anymore.

FreeFallFrenzy1786d ago

If they had focused on single player combat and story, I bet this would've been a classic like the Mass Effect games. All of the pieces were there, it was just really watered down from the GaaS crap. Their wallets got in the way and it ultimately sank into the abyss.

B68W1786d ago

"Don't buy Bioware Games Day One"
It's a sad thing that this statement is true. Just a decade ago Bioware was one of a handful of developers that I could confidently pre-order from. Now, they're an Edgar Suit.

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RaidenBlack1787d ago

Battlefield V and now Anthem. *sigh*
Even Bethesda turned Fallout 76 around from the abysmal garbage it was, at launch.

RememberThe3571787d ago

Why would anyone buy anything from EA ever again? If it doesn't come from Respawn it's probably undercooked trash.

MasterChief36241786d ago

Um... Fallout 76 is still pretty bad...

Godmars2901787d ago

Thought it was a broken game at conception. They had no clear plan for it and only made compromises while developing it.

CaptainHenry9161786d ago

Now I want EA to get shutdown 😁

thorstein1786d ago

Disappointing to be sure. It was fun while it lasted. The quote that makes me okay with this: "everything we had planned as a studio before COVID-19 can be accomplished without putting undue stress on our teams." That last bit.

glennhkboy1786d ago

While EA is not totally innocent, it was BioWare's decision to make Anthem a loot-shooter. It is BioWare that put far too much time on the "flight mechanic" that they finalize the game as a loot-shooter under a year before release.

Seraphim1786d ago

the game was a blast. flight was superb, combat was decent enough and the world was good. The load times & mission structure requiring load in, load out. The lack of story, lack of end game content, structure of loot, etc were all what held it back. A game like this doesn't need the best or longest of stories but it should at least be good. More importantly the end game content; or lack there of. Cataclysm should have been available w/in 2-4 weeks and fresh content either already available or available to release w/in 6 weeks with a continued flow of content throughout the year/s. At the end of the day it was a fun game but short w/ zero end game plus however many technical and graphical issues.

lifeisgamesok1786d ago

Imagine if they made it an action adventure kind of game and kept the flight mechanics while building a campaign with some nice set pieces

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DOMination-1787d ago

From my understanding, EA were reviewing the progress last week. I wasn't expecting a decision so soon, so the fact they've cancelled it must mean it still wasn't in great shape

monkey6021787d ago

I'd say they haven't even done anything with it for the last year. Just tried to scrape together some sales before announcing it is dead

Darkborn1787d ago

In sure that's exactly what happened. They just held out the promise of hope for more sales while they did nothing.

oof461787d ago

Either that, or the resources and money needed, probably didn't match the return.

garos821786d ago

well look at no mans sky. they havent asked for a penny since launch and have added soo much to the game. sales have been increasing rather well for them. it just screams incompetence, bad management and truly not believing in your own hype

oof461786d ago

@garos82: I applaud Sean Murray and his studio for continuing to work on No Man's Sky, but there's a big size difference between Hello Games and Bioware (26 vs 300+). Like I said, EA figured the investment wouldn't match the return.

kayoss1787d ago (Edited 1787d ago )

I think it would have probably better to start back at square one than try to fix something that was pretty broken. If you ever did development work, you will understand what i mean. When a something that big have issues, trying to fix it might introduce other issues. These can also compound each other and render the game unplayable.
Anthem had big ambitions, but for some reasons (either biowares fault or EA's fault) the end result wasnt what they envision it to be. This is why i give props to Bungie for turning Vanilla Destiny into something good. But unfortunately, Bungie made the same mistakes with Destiny 2.

Honestly, as a developer. I dont go into a project to "half ass" it. Ill have a team, we review the plans, we execute the plan. However, with any projects, youll run into issues. Those issues can get really bad when scope began to change (scope creep). This put un-necessary stress on your team and things get slipped through the crack. I know Bioware developers had a vision in their head and wanted to make a game that theyre proud of. But maybe its due to some of the stuff i mentioned above that caused to be off track and deliver a game that bad.

MasterChief36241786d ago

I never would have guessed that it would be canceled if it wasn't in great shape. That's a real revelation, wow.

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RaidenBlack1787d ago (Edited 1787d ago )

The game's still 60 dollars on stores. And basically going forward the game'll be in a limbo.
A 2019 game.
Hate live service games.

eddieistheillest1787d ago

When it's not on sale but usually about $9 when it is. Idgaf about the game but for trophies it's not bad for the price.

Amplitude1787d ago

The Best Buy I worked at had tons of copies for both consoles on clearance for $15 and they're still there to my knowledge. When I worked there I woulda got it for $5 and I still didn't grab it lol

jznrpg1786d ago

I bought a physical copy for 8$ a long time ago

Darkborn1787d ago

For getting lied to and ripped off. The road map was clearly a lie and it never happened.

RememberThe3571787d ago

They specifically denied refunds with the reasoning that the game would be fixed over time. The game was never fixed.

But yeah, stop buying new games, it's just a hustle.

I_am_Batman1786d ago

Honestly you'd be better off being suspicious of any marketing promises as a default position. If people keep paying for glorified early access titles, publishers will continue to release half-baked products.

Iberius1787d ago

More resources for the next Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Can’t say the decision makes me sad.

Palitera1787d ago

What's the use if they keep always deciding to remain in the con business?

Eamon1786d ago

I'm afraid Bioware is finished as a company. The serious problems started with Dragon Age Inquisition, well before Anthem or Andromeda.

Watch GVMERS mini documentary on Anthem. Working life at Bioware was miserable during development of Inquisition that devs wanted it to fail just to send a message to EA. Ironically, Inquisition was treated as a success and thus no serious intervention took place to prevent the complete fall of Bioware.

leemo191787d ago

It lasted longer than what I expected. There was good foundation there to be a good game, but every which way EA/Bioware kept cracking it, to point where it was gone.

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40°

Could Anthem live on? Tech allowing local server hosting existed, former executive producer says

BioWare's multiplayer shooter Anthem was terminated this week because EA no longer wanted to maintain servers for people to play the game on, and without them, no one can play the game. But the former executive producer of Anthem has revealed that BioWare had technology working, close to the game's release, that would enable us to host our own servers to play the game on.

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eurogamer.net
elJoker51d 8h ago

EA/Bioware should allow us to host our own servers to let this game live on.

Christopher1d 4h ago

I'd be fine just playing it as a localhost and dumb as rocks AI bots. Just give me the choice.

40°

Anthem Players Report Download Errors A Week Before Shutdown

BioWare and EA had previously said the game would be accessible to those who owned it until it shuts down on January 12.

anast10d ago

Never buy online games unless there is some kind of refund policy.

50°

Only days remain before EA will switch off the servers to BioWare's ill-fated multiplayer game

Time flies (like a Javelin suit): there are only 10 days left to play BioWare's ill-fated multiplayer game Anthem before the servers are switched off, presumably forever.

Read Full Story >>
eurogamer.net
DivineHand12513d ago

In my opinion, Anthem was a good IP that was worthy of a no man's sky or cyberpunk 2077 treatment.

To this day, their sub reddit is active and I was able to get into a game quickly a few weeks ago when I booted it up.

It is a shame EA and Bioware didn't want to give the game the overhaul it needed to turn it into a competent looter shooter.

GamerRN13d ago

They were close to releasing the overhauled version and then EA cancelled it

TheGamersDojo11d ago

I wholeheartedly agree. If ANY game deserved to get the rework/relaunch it deserved it was this one. More than literally any other. Even over FFXIV, No Mans Sky etc.

SlothLordPootus13d ago

I just finished this up a couple days ago. Although it's a bit repetitive and the story is meh, the game feels great to play. Even if you can only hop on the game for a couple hours before it shuts down, I think it's worth it.

chicken_in_the_corn13d ago

Really enjoyed this. Shame to see it go.

Software_Lover13d ago

I didnt know servers were still up. I could have been playing!!!

victorMaje13d ago

2nd comment attempt (1st doesn’t appear & this may register as duplicate):

They can spend billions to buy or get bought but they can’t spend a fraction of that to fix or overhaul a game that could have been truly special, smh.

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