I think they either can it or work on the "Sequel" that is basically the real game with some next gen enhancements.
In my opinion, EA isn't a publisher who is going to overhaul.
There is no need for ANY publisher to overhaul the game. It's been 2 years now, the gaming world has long since moved on, and frankly the team is lucky they even got ANY chance to work on fixing it.
The good news for Bioware is that the impending release of the Mass Effect remaster will bring in some revenue and give them some breathing room, even if Anthem gets canned. Assuming it does well and EA's expectations aren't utterly ludicrous.
It'd be nice to see a bit of redemption. As much as some elements were poorly thought out or implemented, at its core I enjoy the basic gameplay loop, and would like to see the hard work of many people who were on the team that made it pay off. Especially those who had no say in the mess that led to what we got, at least based on the articles talking about the behind the scenes situation.
Yeah, the community in general (and my friends and I in specific) have moved on, but I still go back to games here and there often enough that I couldn't write off giving it a whirl at least.
That said, the whole thing is really reminding me why I need to avoid Games As A Service in general. Any game that wants to be a way of life is going to innately run head first into all of the others trying to do that. Now that I'm putting substantial hours every week into Apex Legends, the idea of another game that wants my friends and I logging in daily hits a bit of a 'ugh, not again' response.
Playing and progressing through Control, in comparison, has been refreshing. If I don't log in for a week or two... oh well. I didn't miss any 'dailies', I'm not running out of time to finish the battle pass, as much as I love Halloween and Christmas themed skins and events, I haven't had to worry about getting in my points for some arbitrary counter. The finely tuned single player experience is growing in appeal again just because dealing with other people (friends and foes alike) can be tiresome on multiple levels.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
My realist / cynical take on this is such: If they have only spent the last however long and the most they have accomplished is planning and brainstorming a comeback, there's no way this ever gets off the ground. If a plan is all that exists, we are realistically looking at another 2 years of actual work to make this thing happen. The amount of effort needed to fix Anthem is not a 6 month project. They are basically going to have to reinvent the entire game. And the realist in me knows that will never happen.
As others have mentioned, Anthem is already a 2 year old game. It is also a last-gen title. There is absolutely no way in hell the suits at EA will greenlight a comeback strategy this late in the game. Heck, there is no game. The game is over. I'm sorry for the fans and the people who enjoyed this title and I definitely feel empathy for them, but the hope quotient is near 0%. NOTE: Hope Quotient™ is a new metric I just invented right now for this discussion.
My realist / cynical take on this is such: If they have only spent the last however long and the most they have accomplished is planning and brainstorming a comeback, there's no way this ever gets off the ground. If a plan is all that exists, we are realistically looking at another 2 years of actual work to make this thing happen. The amount of effort needed to fix Anthem is not a 6 month project. They are basically going to have to reinvent the entire game. And the realist in me knows that will never happen.
As others have mentioned, Anthem is already a 2 year old game. It is also a last-gen title. There is absolutely no way in hell the suits at EA will greenlight a comeback strategy this late in the game. Heck, there is no game. The game is over. I'm sorry for the fans and the people who enjoyed this title and I definitely feel empathy for them, but the hope quotient is near 0%. NOTE: Hope Quotient™ is a new metric I just invented right now for this discussion.
I wouldn't say there is No Way they greenlight a comeback, but if they do at this point it will absolutely either be Anthem 2, or they'll pull a Destiny 2 and make it Free to Play and roll all the changes in to the base game when they get released, and then make further content packs $30 or $40 instead of making a full-on sequel.
However, my guess is they just quietly fold the game.
My realist / cynical take on this is such: If they have only spent the last however long and the most they have accomplished is planning and brainstorming a comeback, there's no way this ever gets off the ground. If a plan is all that exists, we are realistically looking at another 2 years of actual work to make this thing happen. The amount of effort needed to fix Anthem is not a 6 month project. They are basically going to have to reinvent the entire game. And the realist in me knows that will never happen.
As others have mentioned, Anthem is already a 2 year old game. It is also a last-gen title. There is absolutely no way in hell the suits at EA will greenlight a comeback strategy this late in the game. Heck, there is no game. The game is over. I'm sorry for the fans and the people who enjoyed this title and I definitely feel empathy for them, but the hope quotient is near 0%. NOTE: Hope Quotient™ is a new metric I just invented right now for this discussion.
That's honestly my take as well. I was already worried when they mentioned last year that they only had a 30 man team for work on rebuilding Anthem and now I come to find out that this team was only scoping out the work necessary to get it overhauled and keep basic life support running. That is not a good look for a game this far out of the "hot stuff" loop.
There's probably lots of other factors in the decision as well, such as how well EA's other persistent games are performing, how well Dragon Age is coming together, and whether or not the next Dragon Age will be a persistent microtransaction moneymaker. Plus how well the Anthem redo pitch goes.
It's a tall order, but it's not impossible Anthem will survive -- a persistent microtransaction moneymaker is a gold mine, and despite EA's shutter-happy past, potential gold mines are hard to abandon.
Genshin has crap enemy variety and limits the players in how they progress in an incredible number of ways, but it's "free", feels good to play, and looks good.
Imagine gacha Iron Man suits.
XBL: Bizazedo
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
Genshin has crap enemy variety and limits the players in how they progress in an incredible number of ways, but it's "free", feels good to play, and looks good.
It will be... kind of shocking if EA just lets this die. That said, it's a pretty great warning to any other studio who would ship a busted AAA game with little to no content and no ongoing endgame. "You better add some things to do if you don't want to get Anthem'd."
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ThegreatcowLord of All BaconsWashington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered Userregular
What? Genshin Impact is very successful.
Creating my pitch for EA as I type this. Gacha 4tw.
Knowing ea's penchant for squeezing money out of every rock as long as it's easy to do with minimal effort, that's honestly one of the ways I could see this working. They have to be looking at things like COD mobile offerings and games like Genshin and seeing what moneyspinners they are. That said, given the complete 180 in direction tone/development/monetization, I don't think Anthem would survive such a jarring change without absolute scads of content ready to go on re-launch day.
It will be... kind of shocking if EA just lets this die. That said, it's a pretty great warning to any other studio who would ship a busted AAA game with little to no content and no ongoing endgame. "You better add some things to do if you don't want to get Anthem'd."
Not a lesson that was learned even recently like Marvel Heroes had even less of an endgame.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
It will be... kind of shocking if EA just lets this die. That said, it's a pretty great warning to any other studio who would ship a busted AAA game with little to no content and no ongoing endgame. "You better add some things to do if you don't want to get Anthem'd."
Not a lesson that was learned even recently like Marvel Heroes had even less of an endgame.
You mean Avengers? Yeah, there's rumblings Square will stop supporting it after all the announced content comes out. Plus they hinted the game was the cause for their profits going down in their latest quarterly report.
Biggest problem the game had is it was clearly a single player title they tried to make be a games as service and it didn't work. Like I own it, I played it, I almost 100% of the time never played with a single other person not once.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
It will be... kind of shocking if EA just lets this die. That said, it's a pretty great warning to any other studio who would ship a busted AAA game with little to no content and no ongoing endgame. "You better add some things to do if you don't want to get Anthem'd."
They let Andromeda die and it was way more salvageable in my eyes. A big DLC for ME:A that fills some plot holes, updates the textures of the character models, fixes bugs and maybe does a light expansion of the multiplayer is still like 25% of the amount of work Anthem needed at the point of release. But instead of fix what was supposed to be the next generation of their signature franchise, they elected to drop it in favor of a new franchise that wasn't fleshed out and repeat all of the same mistakes as well as more that led to them dropping ME.
I don't think I am speaking just for myself when I say my fatalism towards Anthem isn't just from looking at the scale of the game's problems but that the last 5-6 years have left me with no reason to believe in BW.
It will be... kind of shocking if EA just lets this die. That said, it's a pretty great warning to any other studio who would ship a busted AAA game with little to no content and no ongoing endgame. "You better add some things to do if you don't want to get Anthem'd."
They let Andromeda die and it was way more salvageable in my eyes. A big DLC for ME:A that fills some plot holes, updates the textures of the character models, fixes bugs and maybe does a light expansion of the multiplayer is still like 25% of the amount of work Anthem needed at the point of release. But instead of fix what was supposed to be the next generation of their signature franchise, they elected to drop it in favor of a new franchise that wasn't fleshed out and repeat all of the same mistakes as well as more that led to them dropping ME.
I don't think I am speaking just for myself when I say my fatalism towards Anthem isn't just from looking at the scale of the game's problems but that the last 5-6 years have left me with no reason to believe in BW.
The thing about Andromeda is that big DLC doesn't make nearly as much money as the dripfeed of persistent content, especially when the game didn't meet sales expectations. We forget, but Anthem was the fifth-highest selling game of 2019. It's just that its business model was more dependent on what happens after the game is in the audience's hands.
Personally I'd hope for a redemption for anthem, I liked the lore building and a mech combat persistent game scratches an itch. But they are behind the eight ball already, covid probably hurt them because its slower to work from home and EA just wants to move on which is a shame but its not like anyone will really care if another GAAS game goes down and some people on twitter will get to celebrate another lol bioware.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Imo they were probably done in by the timing of the next gen consoles as much as anything; putting resources into making anthem serviceable is a lot less tenable when the Hot New Shit is right around the corner
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
Imo they were probably done in by the timing of the next gen consoles as much as anything; putting resources into making anthem serviceable is a lot less tenable when the Hot New Shit is right around the corner
I dunno really. Like I have a new console, and the only real next gen game I've played on it is frigging destiny 2. I don't even know what's the first next gen title I can see coming the next halo? Maybe? Like I bought it in a consoles are basically pcs now in that it runs my stuff faster and at higher FPS, but there hasn't been a "must get" at this point for me.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
I mostly want them to continue to "re-charge" the franchise. I really want some single player content that is up to Bioware's usually standard. If this is killed, I wonder if that's it for Anthem.
I mostly want them to continue to "re-charge" the franchise. I really want some single player content that is up to Bioware's usually standard. If this is killed, I wonder if that's it for Anthem.
If they don't continue with the reborn or whatever yeah Anthem is done as a franchise, no way do they go back to it.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Hard to believe you could fuck up a money printing machine like Avengers and then walk away from it. At least Anthem has the excuse that new IP is hard.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
It will be... kind of shocking if EA just lets this die. That said, it's a pretty great warning to any other studio who would ship a busted AAA game with little to no content and no ongoing endgame. "You better add some things to do if you don't want to get Anthem'd."
They let Andromeda die and it was way more salvageable in my eyes. A big DLC for ME:A that fills some plot holes, updates the textures of the character models, fixes bugs and maybe does a light expansion of the multiplayer is still like 25% of the amount of work Anthem needed at the point of release. But instead of fix what was supposed to be the next generation of their signature franchise, they elected to drop it in favor of a new franchise that wasn't fleshed out and repeat all of the same mistakes as well as more that led to them dropping ME.
I don't think I am speaking just for myself when I say my fatalism towards Anthem isn't just from looking at the scale of the game's problems but that the last 5-6 years have left me with no reason to believe in BW.
The thing about Andromeda is that big DLC doesn't make nearly as much money as the dripfeed of persistent content, especially when the game didn't meet sales expectations. We forget, but Anthem was the fifth-highest selling game of 2019. It's just that its business model was more dependent on what happens after the game is in the audience's hands.
Andromeda didn't meet sales expectations because those expectations were set from a completely meritless analysis that predicted a Metacritic score of "good enough, fucking ship it already." Anthem fell well short of its goals too. My point isn't really related to the revenue model. When BW isn't necessarily making bad decisions, it's making them for bad reasons.
Hard to believe you could fuck up a money printing machine like Avengers and then walk away from it. At least Anthem has the excuse that new IP is hard.
Its kind of surprising with as big as the marvel franchises are they have not really put out a ton of games to capitalize on it. Like spiderman is the only real good one, and thats not even straight marvel.
Preacher on
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Hard to believe you could fuck up a money printing machine like Avengers and then walk away from it. At least Anthem has the excuse that new IP is hard.
Its kind of surprising with as big as the marvel franchises are they have not really put out a ton of games to capitalize on it. Like spiderman is the only real good one, and thats not even straight marvel.
Disney is not super good at videogames..
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
There's nothing Square Enix loves more than throwing their western developers under the bus, and this time it's even fairly warranted.
As for Anthem, someone has to convince EA that working on Anthem will result in making more money. That seems like a tall fucking order.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited February 2021
TBH I don't know how much worse Anthem fared than any other AAA GaaS where it came out pretty barebones and was eventually made into something decent. Hell, that's pretty much the genre's MO from what I've seen.
I think it was moreso that the game released at point where most people were just tired of that cycle. Not to mention the internal development strife on top of that.
There's nothing Square Enix loves more than throwing their western developers under the bus, and this time it's even fairly warranted.
As for Anthem, someone has to convince EA that working on Anthem will result in making more money. That seems like a tall fucking order.
Only thing I could see is EA play has really nothing to it then retreads of previous games that already came out. Their service could direly use a game people would want to come back to, whether that's anthem or something else ??? I mean EA hasn't been releasing bangers recently.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
There's nothing Square Enix loves more than throwing their western developers under the bus, and this time it's even fairly warranted.
As for Anthem, someone has to convince EA that working on Anthem will result in making more money. That seems like a tall fucking order.
Only thing I could see is EA play has really nothing to it then retreads of previous games that already came out. Their service could direly use a game people would want to come back to, whether that's anthem or something else ??? I mean EA hasn't been releasing bangers recently.
Well, their sports games and Star Wars stuff are doing well, and Sims 4 somehow keeps kicking along.
TBH I don't know how much worse Anthem fared than any other AAA GaaS where it came out pretty barebones and was eventually made into something decent. Hell, that's pretty much the genre's MO from what I've seen.
I think it was moreso that the game released at point where most people were just tired of that cycle. Not to mention the internal development strife on top of that.
I think the launch was a disaster even by most GaaS standards, being buggy and poorly optimized and having poor connectivity and stability. I remember having a hard time just trying to play the game when it first came out.
Posts
I hadn't realized that was an option they were considering.
not optimistic about that scenario
Seems like once this gen gets started it'll be quickly overshadowed anyway.
In my opinion, EA isn't a publisher who is going to overhaul.
There is no need for ANY publisher to overhaul the game. It's been 2 years now, the gaming world has long since moved on, and frankly the team is lucky they even got ANY chance to work on fixing it.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Yeah, the community in general (and my friends and I in specific) have moved on, but I still go back to games here and there often enough that I couldn't write off giving it a whirl at least.
That said, the whole thing is really reminding me why I need to avoid Games As A Service in general. Any game that wants to be a way of life is going to innately run head first into all of the others trying to do that. Now that I'm putting substantial hours every week into Apex Legends, the idea of another game that wants my friends and I logging in daily hits a bit of a 'ugh, not again' response.
Playing and progressing through Control, in comparison, has been refreshing. If I don't log in for a week or two... oh well. I didn't miss any 'dailies', I'm not running out of time to finish the battle pass, as much as I love Halloween and Christmas themed skins and events, I haven't had to worry about getting in my points for some arbitrary counter. The finely tuned single player experience is growing in appeal again just because dealing with other people (friends and foes alike) can be tiresome on multiple levels.
It was always headed this way.
As others have mentioned, Anthem is already a 2 year old game. It is also a last-gen title. There is absolutely no way in hell the suits at EA will greenlight a comeback strategy this late in the game. Heck, there is no game. The game is over. I'm sorry for the fans and the people who enjoyed this title and I definitely feel empathy for them, but the hope quotient is near 0%. NOTE: Hope Quotient™ is a new metric I just invented right now for this discussion.
I wouldn't say there is No Way they greenlight a comeback, but if they do at this point it will absolutely either be Anthem 2, or they'll pull a Destiny 2 and make it Free to Play and roll all the changes in to the base game when they get released, and then make further content packs $30 or $40 instead of making a full-on sequel.
However, my guess is they just quietly fold the game.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
That's honestly my take as well. I was already worried when they mentioned last year that they only had a 30 man team for work on rebuilding Anthem and now I come to find out that this team was only scoping out the work necessary to get it overhauled and keep basic life support running. That is not a good look for a game this far out of the "hot stuff" loop.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
It's a tall order, but it's not impossible Anthem will survive -- a persistent microtransaction moneymaker is a gold mine, and despite EA's shutter-happy past, potential gold mines are hard to abandon.
Genshin has crap enemy variety and limits the players in how they progress in an incredible number of ways, but it's "free", feels good to play, and looks good.
Imagine gacha Iron Man suits.
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
No.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Creating my pitch for EA as I type this. Gacha 4tw.
PSN: Bizazedo
CFN: Bizazedo (I don't think I suck, add me).
Knowing ea's penchant for squeezing money out of every rock as long as it's easy to do with minimal effort, that's honestly one of the ways I could see this working. They have to be looking at things like COD mobile offerings and games like Genshin and seeing what moneyspinners they are. That said, given the complete 180 in direction tone/development/monetization, I don't think Anthem would survive such a jarring change without absolute scads of content ready to go on re-launch day.
Wud yoo laek to lern aboot meatz? Look here!
Not a lesson that was learned even recently like Marvel Heroes had even less of an endgame.
pleasepaypreacher.net
You mean Avengers? Yeah, there's rumblings Square will stop supporting it after all the announced content comes out. Plus they hinted the game was the cause for their profits going down in their latest quarterly report.
Biggest problem the game had is it was clearly a single player title they tried to make be a games as service and it didn't work. Like I own it, I played it, I almost 100% of the time never played with a single other person not once.
pleasepaypreacher.net
They let Andromeda die and it was way more salvageable in my eyes. A big DLC for ME:A that fills some plot holes, updates the textures of the character models, fixes bugs and maybe does a light expansion of the multiplayer is still like 25% of the amount of work Anthem needed at the point of release. But instead of fix what was supposed to be the next generation of their signature franchise, they elected to drop it in favor of a new franchise that wasn't fleshed out and repeat all of the same mistakes as well as more that led to them dropping ME.
I don't think I am speaking just for myself when I say my fatalism towards Anthem isn't just from looking at the scale of the game's problems but that the last 5-6 years have left me with no reason to believe in BW.
The thing about Andromeda is that big DLC doesn't make nearly as much money as the dripfeed of persistent content, especially when the game didn't meet sales expectations. We forget, but Anthem was the fifth-highest selling game of 2019. It's just that its business model was more dependent on what happens after the game is in the audience's hands.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
I dunno really. Like I have a new console, and the only real next gen game I've played on it is frigging destiny 2. I don't even know what's the first next gen title I can see coming the next halo? Maybe? Like I bought it in a consoles are basically pcs now in that it runs my stuff faster and at higher FPS, but there hasn't been a "must get" at this point for me.
pleasepaypreacher.net
If they don't continue with the reborn or whatever yeah Anthem is done as a franchise, no way do they go back to it.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Andromeda didn't meet sales expectations because those expectations were set from a completely meritless analysis that predicted a Metacritic score of "good enough, fucking ship it already." Anthem fell well short of its goals too. My point isn't really related to the revenue model. When BW isn't necessarily making bad decisions, it's making them for bad reasons.
Its kind of surprising with as big as the marvel franchises are they have not really put out a ton of games to capitalize on it. Like spiderman is the only real good one, and thats not even straight marvel.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Disney is not super good at videogames..
As for Anthem, someone has to convince EA that working on Anthem will result in making more money. That seems like a tall fucking order.
I think it was moreso that the game released at point where most people were just tired of that cycle. Not to mention the internal development strife on top of that.
Only thing I could see is EA play has really nothing to it then retreads of previous games that already came out. Their service could direly use a game people would want to come back to, whether that's anthem or something else ??? I mean EA hasn't been releasing bangers recently.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Well, their sports games and Star Wars stuff are doing well, and Sims 4 somehow keeps kicking along.
Their last quarterly report shows they're still profitable, though it's down about two-thirds from the same time last year. Which would suggest it's belt-tightening time. Gotta keep those shareholders happy.
I think the launch was a disaster even by most GaaS standards, being buggy and poorly optimized and having poor connectivity and stability. I remember having a hard time just trying to play the game when it first came out.