Anthem Sacrifices The Short Term To Save Its Future
Remember Anthem? Sometimes we've wondered if Bioware would rather us forget about its failed shooter. The game was a flop that made fans worried about the future of the studio – it was that bad. Despite this, Bioware has remained dedicated to Anthem, and now plans to revamp the game wholly.
In a blog post today, Bioware announced that the studio is now starting work on "a more substantial reinvention than an update or expansion." We had some hint that this was on the way last year when Kotaku reported that insiders at the company had indicated that an Anthem 2.0 was on the way.
It's almost been a year since the release of Anthem, and the game hasn't really gotten much good press since. The action RPG suffered from a confusing launch and the reputation of being nothing more than a Destiny clone, leading to an embarrassingly small player base. To this day, players complain of bad loot progression and a glaring lack of content.
How does Bioware plan to clean up this mess?
How Anthem will change
The Bioware blog past says that the devs would like to bring out the full potential of Anthem, but that's going to require some serious work; more than an update and bigger than an expansion. This year, Bioware will be "focusing on a longer-term redesign of the experience." The core gameplay of Anthem will see a reinvention: clear goals, meaningful rewards, and motivating challenges.
Bioware doesn't appear to be sure when this makeover will be complete, only mentioning that this work will take place in the coming months. In the meantime, Anthem will still be online in its current, less-than-ideal 1.0 state. Don't expect many updates, either: Bioware has stated that it will put "full seasons" to the side so more resources can be applied to the revamp. This means the game won't see a whole lot of new content for however long this job takes.
But hey — now we can really feel celebratory with all those Icetide decorations still festooning the world.
Fans feel that this rework is long overdue–many saying that Anthem never should have launched in the state that it did. Some hope that Bioware will get it right this time, while others are dismissing the game as a lost cause. We'll see if Anthem can redeem itself when this rework launches.