Wednesday, February 24th 2021
BioWare & EA Cancel Development of Anthem NEXT
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). We will, however, continue to keep the Anthem live service running as it exists today. Since Anthem's launch, the team has been working hard to continually improve the game, releasing multiple updates that brought with them a variety of improvements and introduced new content to play. Towards the end of 2019 we expanded on that effort and started working on a more fundamental restructure of the game.
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.
I know this will be disappointing to the community of Anthem players who have been excited to see the improvements we've been working on. It's also disappointing for the team who were doing brilliant work. And for me personally, Anthem is what brought me to BioWare, and the last two years have been some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my career.
Game development is hard. Decisions like these are not easy. Moving forward, we need to laser focus our efforts as a studio and strengthen the next Dragon Age, and Mass Effect titles while continuing to provide quality updates to Star Wars: The Old Republic.
To the Anthem community, thank you for your passion and creativity. Your feedback and suggestions most certainly help shape the team's direction, and on a personal note, your kindness and encouragement were much needed last year.
Source:
Bioware
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.
I know this will be disappointing to the community of Anthem players who have been excited to see the improvements we've been working on. It's also disappointing for the team who were doing brilliant work. And for me personally, Anthem is what brought me to BioWare, and the last two years have been some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my career.
Game development is hard. Decisions like these are not easy. Moving forward, we need to laser focus our efforts as a studio and strengthen the next Dragon Age, and Mass Effect titles while continuing to provide quality updates to Star Wars: The Old Republic.
To the Anthem community, thank you for your passion and creativity. Your feedback and suggestions most certainly help shape the team's direction, and on a personal note, your kindness and encouragement were much needed last year.
39 Comments on BioWare & EA Cancel Development of Anthem NEXT
Anthems idea was not bad but the execution was horrible.
The sad thing is that it is the investors who ruin everything. They only care about making more money, they have zero interest in creating anything. What is the point of making money just to make it? Is this the equivalent of sleeping with every woman you possibly can? Why are there so few passionate rich people who actually want to bring something into this world, and not just into their pockets? The world is so sad.
Id say they are.
I enjoyed Andromeda for what it was, and in a relatively bug-free state I just wish they'd had a larger team and more time to release they game they actually wanted to rather than the half-baked, half-sized game that EA made them push out the door.
In the meantime at least there is this post which was timed incredibly horribly, so we can have a bit of a laugh - AnthemTheGame/comments/lrktpj
So basically Andromeda contains nothing except the artwork and skins/assets from the Mass Effect series, its not even remotely a serious entry.
The same goes for Dragon Age beyond part 1 really. Bioware was looking to refine the format and managed to clusterfuck it to death.
lazy to go to work = covid
why you get a speed ticket = covid
why i am salty = covid
"insert problem here" = "excuse = covid"
Of course, we all know EA will learn jack shit from this. They'll force another live service disaster out from another dev, be shocked when it inevitably fails, then rinse and repeat.
A vast majority is soulless, zero talent in writing, its all ultra cliché 'guaranteed success' blandness. Everything got mainstreamed to death basically. The games you remember are the strange ones, the ones that surprise, the ones that offer depth in gameplay or writing, something to really discover beyond just walking up to a marker and minmaxing your three quasi-RPG stats to somehow provide an impression you're doing something substantial. You're really not, you're just walking the path of fake choice. That's Bioware content in a nutshell for a while now. They say they're making RPGs, but they're really not. They make action games with an identity crisis.
With the diversity discussion on top not only is the content bland, but the visuals are also now the eternal 'must have people types'. Everyone walked straight out of an Instagram shot and looks like a Hollywood actor. Disgusting. And oh yeah, we have one each of Asian, Caucasian, Black... male and female in a near-perfect 50% split... yawnfest. There is no basis for any of it, no writing to support it. Its just there because it must be done.Destiny was a ten-year journey too remember. They abandoned that idea since year two, but never mind that, in the EA board room, that's the buzz line that stuck with them.
Copy copy copy with no idea of what good gaming is.
It's not the IP that's the problem with BioWare. Its writing and management/execution. They have good ideas but if the writing sucks and management is rife with undecisive people then what you get is a poorly executed release with unintresting characters. Bugs can be fixed. Bad writing stays after the release.