EA will reportedly make a decision on whether to continue rebooting Anthem, Bioware’s maligned live-service game, or to abandon the project altogether.
The report from long-time Bioware reporter Jason Schreier says that, according to three sources, EA will make a judgement on the current state of Anthem Next this week. Anthem Next has been the working name for a reboot of Anthem, overhauling the game’s loot systems, UI, and mechanics in a bid to revive the looter shooter ala. No Man’s Sky.
Work on Anthem Next began in 2019, although at the time it was unclear whether the plan was to relaunch Anthem as a new game or just release it as a free update. But over the last two years, little information has been teased about the title. Christian Dailey made a few official posts on Bioware’s blog about Anthem‘s status, but in December the producer left the Anthem project to become the executive producer on Dragon Age 4.
Anthem‘s failed launch in February 2019 became a posterchild for the internet’s dissastisfaction with live service games — although it hasn’t stopped other live service titles from enjoying huge success.
You can read the rest of Bloomberg’s report here in full, so go give it a click. EA naturally declined to comment, as is customary for publishers in situations like this. But you can imagine their supposed meeting this week will be difficult. Everyone loves a redemption story, and games like Fallout 76 and Final Fantasy XIV have shown the value of persistence, but is Anthem — a game even retailers were taking the piss out of — capable of such a turnaround?
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