Earlier this year, Anthem developer BioWare confirmed that it had shifted towards substantially reworking the live-service RPG, halting all additional content previously planned for release. And in its latest update, it doesn’t seem like you should hope for those changes to arrive soon.
BioWare Austin studio director Christian Dailey provided a brief update on the process the studio is taking for the rework, explaining that a small team of around 30 developers are now working to identify where Anthem fell short.
“Incubation is a term we use internally – it essentially means we are going back and experimenting/prototyping to improve on the areas where we believe we fell short and to leverage everything that you love currently about Anthem,” Dailey writes. “We are a small team – about 30-ish, earning our way forward as we set out to hit our first major milestone goals.”
Dailey is quick to mention that this is a long process, which suggests we won’t be seeing Anthem Next (as he calls it) any time soon. At the very least, not at EA’s Play Live Event that is scheduled to stream next month. “Spoiler–this is going to be a longer process,” Dailey explains. “And yes, the team is small but the whole point of this is to take our time and go back to the drawing board. And a small team gives us the agility a larger one can’t afford.”
The approach BioWare is taking with this next chapter in Anthem’s story is transparency. Dailey describes how his team wants to be open with Anthem players and show them where they’re focusing their efforts. He warns that it might end up frustrating players when the studio makes decisions it doesn’t agree with, but that it’s important for the entire method to be clear.
“We want to include you as we go and be open and honest with where we are at and what the expectations are with where we are going,” Dailey continues. “The reality is you will see things that look awesome but end up on the cutting room floor or things that you might think suck that you feel we are spending too much time on–but in the spirit of experimentation this is all OK. We really want to provide you all the transparency we can because of your passion and interest in Anthem.”
A fundamental reworking of Anthem was confirmed by BioWare GM Casey Hudson earlier this year. Anthem continues to rotate existing content for players still sticking with it, but will not receive any new content until this process has completed.
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