In a recent blog post on BioWare’s official website, BioWare Austin and Anthem Executive Producer, Christian Dailey, announced that the game studio has opted to cease development on Anthem. This includes a previously announced fundamental restructure of the game that was being worked on under the name of Anthem NEXT, which will no longer see the light of day.
This ends a tumultuous run for the online multiplayer game and so-called live service. The game launched in January 2019, where it received middling reviews and amassed disappointing sales, failing to hit publisher Electronic Arts’ expected six million copies sold by March 2019.
For the remaining players of the doomed title, Dailey did announce in his blog post that Anthem will continue running as a live service as it exists today.
Whether BioWare will keep to that promise for the foreseeable future remains to be seen.
Additionally, Dailey cited the COVID-19 pandemic and issues with “working from home during the pandemic” impacting productivity and development for what BioWare had planned for relaunching Anthem.
Dailey added, “Not everything we had planned as a studio before COVID-19 can be accomplished without putting undue stress on our teams.”
Ironically enough, it was reported by Jason Schreier in Kotaku in April 2019 how much stress and pressure the development team for Anthem was put under so the game could make its launch date.
One anonymous former BioWare developer claimed, “I actually cannot count the amount of ‘stress casualties we had on Mass Effect: Andromeda or Anthem.”
In terms of the future for BioWare, Daily noted that the team is looking to achieve “laser focus” in order to strengthen the next planned installment of Dragon Age and also Mass Effect, along with updates to Star Wars: The Old Republic.
However, the sad end for Anthem definitely serves as a cautionary tale that should serve as an example to the entire video gaming industry. Otherwise, it will be a mistake that history is doomed to repeat.
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