It’s been more than a year now since when Anthem was released, on 22nd February 2019. By the time of its first update in three months, it was said to be a game that would represent a big leap into new territory for them as a studio and would be a long process.
Now it can clearly be said that the current condition of the game is not too good as it is seen that during Valentine’s Day, they still had their Christmas decorations on. And worst, the developers’ quiet over the game has lasted for a long time.
Christian Dailey, director at BioWare Austin studio wrote, “The Anthem incubation team has kicked off and we are setting to validate our design hypotheses”. Incubation is a gorgon that stands for going back and experimenting/prototyping to improve on the areas where believed fell short and to leverage everything that creates love currently for Anthem.
Dailey also added, “And yes, the team is small but the whole point of this is to take our time and go back to the drawing board. And a small team gives us the agility a larger one can’t afford.” It all relates to the claim that 30 minds are working hard to hit the first major milestone goal, but it would take more time than expected.
By the end of 2019, news spread that BioWare plans to restructure the battling 2019 plunderer by altering the development functions from BioWare Edmonton to BioWare Austin. At that moment it was not clear what shape this latest Anthem 2.0 was going to take, and BioWare was not sounding confident enough.
Anthem experienced slow load times, glitches, and a severe lack of content when it was first published in February 2019. The key campaign sounds less like a gripping story by BioWare, and more like a Destiny 1-style preface.
But they tend to have decided recently to break that silence. Casey Hudson, general manager of BioWare, claimed online that Anthem should be reinvented. He said, “We have also heard your feedback that Anthem needs a more satisfying loot experience, better long-term progression, and a more fulfilling end game. So, we recognize that there’s still more fundamental work to be done to bring out the full potential of the experience, and it will require a more substantial reinvention than an update or expansion. Over the coming months, we will be focusing on a longer-term redesign of the experience, specifically working to reinvent the core gameplay loop with clear goals, motivating challenges and progression with meaningful rewards”. What Hudson said sounds promising, the ray of light can be seen, while it can take a touch of confidence to trust BioWare to transform Anthem into a decent game.
