It’s no secret that the conversation around Anthem has been nonexistent for the last few weeks (if not months). After revealing the Cataclysm event to players, developer BioWare has gone almost completely radio silent with no news about when Cataclysm might actually release or what the future holds for the game. And now it seems Electronic Arts has all but forgotten Anthem even exists.
In a Q1 2020 investor call, Electronic Arts discussed the future of its company and the upcoming and current products that will hopefully boost financials in the future. Games like Apex Legends, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, FIFA, and Madden were all key talking points during the call, but Anthem only came up once and was quickly dismissed.
The two genuine mentions of Anthem in the call are in the context of other games. First, COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen mentions that Anthem sold well on digital and has forced EA to shift its revenue model away from retail. Then, Anthem is mentioned in the context of creating a new IP from scratch. There is no actual mention of what’s going on with Anthem or if EA still has hope in the IP. In fact, BioWare isn’t mentioned at all, even though it has a new Dragon Age game in the works.
While Anthem was once thought to be EA and BioWare’s answer to Destiny – a live service game with a massive player base and long-term investment – instead Anthem has been one of this year’s biggest disappointments. Some of that can be attributed to BioWare’s struggles to balance player enjoyment with investment design (i.e. making loot rewarding but worth the grind), but the major problem seems to be a lack of focus during development. Behind the scenes stories tell the tale of Anthem’s troubled journey from intriguing idea to finished product, with a lot of turbulence in between.
Still, Anthem released and had its fair share of fans, but many began to lose hope as time went on. BioWare couldn’t find a balance with loot or a way to make the handful of endgame experiences engaging, and promises of new content were continuously pushed further and further into the background. At this point, Anthem should be deep into its post launch schedule, but BioWare basically wiped that from the Internet.
The only real piece of content that was confirmed to be on the way is Cataclysm, but after a lackluster debut on the Public Test Server it’s unclear what’s happening now. There were signs that Cataclysm was looming like storms appearing in the live game, but then nothing. And now Electronic Arts won’t even address the game’s future in an investor call.
Anthem is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Seeking Alpha