BioWare's Anthem reportedly delayed until 2019

[midian182]

If you were looking forward to playing another beautiful, online co-op shooter this year, here’s some bad news: Anthem, BioWare's potential rival to Destiny, has reportedly been delayed until 2019.

There has been lot of hype surrounding Anthem since its stunning trailer appeared at E3, though experience teaches us that these aren’t always a true reflection of the finished product. Nevertheless, the multi-platform title looks like it has potential, and the 4K visuals are undeniably gorgeous.

Sadly, we’re not going to find out if Anthem lives up to its promise until at least March 2019. The game was scheduled for release this fall, but according to a report from Kotaku, which cites three people close to its development, that was “never realistic.”

It feels like a huge number of games experience delays these days, but BioWare’s devs have reportedly been under extra pressure when it comes to Anthem. The commercial and critical failure of last year’s Mass Effect Andromeda led to parent company Electronic Arts folding Bioware Montreal into the EA Motive Studio. Should Anthem fail to deliver, BioWare’s Edmonton and Austin studios could suffer a similar fate.

The negative publicity from EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and its loot box system has also been playing on the mind of Anthem’s developers. The team has reportedly been demoralized over the way popular YouTubers have demonized EA, making the company out to be villains. It’s also caused BioWare to rethink how microtransactions are used in Anthem—they may be cosmetic only.

Anthem’s delay still hasn’t been confirmed by EA, but a 2019 release does appear highly likely.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/72926-bioware-anthem-reportedly-delayed-until-2019.html

 

[BSim500]

"The team has reportedly been demoralized over the way popular YouTubers have demonized EA, making the company out to be villains"

Surely they're not THAT gullible? Dragon Age 2 was the first obvious "red flag" (link) as to how "old school Bioware" 'evolved' into "EA-Bioware". Everything since then from dumbing down to lootboxes has just been the icing on the cake...

"It’s also caused BioWare to rethink how microtransactions are used in Anthem—they may be cosmetic only."

If they had to RE-think it, then that's virtually an admission they were intending to go "full on" with pay2win MTs / lootboxes which perfectly justifies above "demonization" in the first place...

 

[erickmendes]

Looking forward for this one, hope it get released and go out of the gate in a shape that's playable and not rid by bugs from day 1. I'm old, selling my gaming rig at the moment... 2019 is not that far for me, I can wait.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Should Anthem fail to deliver, BioWare’s Edmonton and Austin studios could suffer a similar fate.

We all know that is coming. Even if anthem comes out and is decent, EA will just use the excuse of 'insufficient profits' or something like that and shutter the studio anyway.

Bioware is a shell of its former self, and I will be amazed if any of it survives into 2020.

 

[dirtyferret]

Isn't this game a little late to the party like all the moba games after LoL, card games after hearthstone,, mmorpg after WoW.

 

[Uncle Al]

Looks like yet another game maker taking a page out of the GTA manual .... but take heart, it will certainly be out by 2025 ...... maybe .....

 

[ghostf1re]

The videos on this game make it look promising, but I won't hold my breath on anything that comes from Bioware for now. They aren't anything like what they used to be.

 

[m4a4]

Meh. This is one of the games that I need more detail on to know if it's a write off or a day one buy.

The concept is cool (even if the publisher is EA), but that's as much as I can say with how little we know lol....

 

[Stingy McDuck]

I wouldn't like to be in Bioware's position: "You have to make a game based in our specifications, but if it fails it will be your fault and we (EA) will close your studio and make your employees work in our next Star Wars/Need for Speed game".

 

[Misagt]

Should Anthem fail to deliver, BioWare’s Edmonton and Austin studios could suffer a similar fate.

We all know that is coming. Even if anthem comes out and is decent, EA will just use the excuse of 'insufficient profits' or something like that and shutter the studio anyway.

Bioware is a shell of its former self, and I will be amazed if any of it survives into 2020.

Your completely right. I live in Edmonton Alberta and I know people who work/worked at Bioware. The company is dead almost all the staff are gone and Anthem is going to be there last game. Sad I really loved having a world class Developer in my home town. Oh well, all good things must come to an end, and will be cut short of EA buys you

 

[davislane1]

The team has reportedly been demoralized over the way popular YouTubers have demonized EA, making the company out to be villains. It’s also caused BioWare to rethink how microtransactions are used in Anthem—they may be cosmetic only.

Here's what's going to come out about this in the future:

Prior to EA dropping the ball (ME:A) and then spiking it on the very next play (BF2), there was a bonus structure being implemented at EA that tied a percentage of dev pay to micro transaction performance.

They had planned to implement this extensively in Anthem.

However, now that EA has made micro transaction systems with their association all but physically radio active (sports titles notwithstanding), this system is being scrapped to avoid torpedoing Bioware and EA's future projects before they ever get out of pre-alpha.

Which means they will have to rework the reward structure of the core game and lose the compensation they were getting for how well their micro transaction systems work out in the field.

Furthermore, they are going to have to work harder (see: intelligently).

This is related specifically to Bioware's increasingly lobotomized game design (and story telling), which started with Inquisition (some may say DA2) and went full scalpel with Andromeda. Criticisms of Destiny 2 have only reaffirmed the following for the devs:

Throwing all your resources behind graphics and being "efficient" with the rest of the game isn't going to translate to sales.

All the YouTubers have done is point these things out.

 

[Reehahs]

The team has reportedly been demoralized over the way popular YouTubers have demonized EA, making the company out to be villains. It’s also caused BioWare to rethink how microtransactions are used in Anthem—they may be cosmetic only.

Here's what's going to come out about this in the future:

Prior to EA dropping the ball (ME:A) and then spiking it on the very next play (BF2), there was a bonus structure being implemented at EA that tied a percentage of dev pay to micro transaction performance.

They had planned to implement this extensively in Anthem.

However, now that EA has made micro transaction systems with their association all but physically radio active (sports titles notwithstanding), this system is being scrapped to avoid torpedoing Bioware and EA's future projects before they ever get out of pre-alpha.

Which means they will have to rework the reward structure of the core game and lose the compensation they were getting for how well their micro transaction systems work out in the field.

Furthermore, they are going to have to work harder (see: intelligently).

This is related specifically to Bioware's increasingly lobotomized game design (and story telling), which started with Inquisition (some may say DA2) and went full scalpel with Andromeda. Criticisms of Destiny 2 have only reaffirmed the following for the devs:

Throwing all your resources behind graphics and being "efficient" with the rest of the game isn't going to translate to sales.

All the YouTubers have done is point these things out.

These are all well described points.

Micro transactions should only be cosmetics especially in the case of multiplayer games.