Anthem Missions Will Keep Multiplayer Groups Tethered

Game Rant

By Derek Nichols

Published Jan 14, 2019

Anthem lead producer Michael Gamble takes to Twitter to announce and explain how multiplayer tethering works in the game and assure fans who may be worried by it.

EA's newest IP, Anthem, is quickly nearing its launch date and the development team at BioWare continues to answers burning questions that fans have through many of its social channels like Twitter and Twitch. The studio's consistent Twitch streams have been a great source of new information and gameplay, showing off features like the javelin customization, Infiltrator class abilities, and much more. Developers like Michael Gamble have also been fairly active online, providing new details to fans including the latest news about how missions will play out in multiplayer.

Taking to Twitter to reveal new information about the upcoming open-world shooter, Anthem lead producer Mike Gamble revealed that BioWare has added a tethering mechanic to all missions in the game. While not going into too much detail, Gamble did confirm that the tethering is fairly forgiving, and is only in place for multiplayer missions and not when players are exploring the open world together in Freeplay mode.

Naturally, at hearing the word tether, a few fans seemed to express concern, though Gamble was quick to explain why the team went in that direction. In his example, the tethering is in place during missions to prevent other players from suddenly taking off on their own to explore a new area or hunt for a collectible, leaving the rest of the team who are focused on completing the objective weakened and vulnerable to enemy units. The goal is to keep players together to finish the mission goals.

Following a closed alpha test last month, BioWare is preparing a new VIP demo to kick off later this month for fans who have pre-ordered the game or who are signed up for EA/Origin Access. Taking place on January 25-27, BioWare recently confirmed that players will access will be able to get a jump by pre-loading the demo a couple days early on January 23. Thankfully, an open demo is also being planned for everyone else a week later on February 1-3. At this time, it's not known what either demo will contain or how big the download file will be. With two days to pre-load the demo, most players should be ready to go once the gates open up on January 25 and February 1.

Anthem releases February 22, 2019 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.