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[Anthem] Death from Above ! and Sideways ! sometimes even from Below !

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Posts

  • Ear3nd1lEar3nd1l Eärendil the Mariner, father of Elrond Registered User regular
    Is anyone else out of contracts? Or am I missing something?

  • Corporal CarlCorporal Carl Registered User regular
    OK, I have only been booting up Anthem to check whether there is something in the store that’s interesting.

    An amazingly gorgeous Star-Crossed wrap has appeared.
    It is the first time that I have something like “well, THAT is worth the 61K price your asking”.

    And then I notice I only have 30K :bigfrown:

    And with almost all challenges done, well, no easy quick extra money making for me.

    Now if the girl in the market would give a couple of coins per crafting material I have in excess (Uncle Vonny should appreciate the low price I’m asking) then she would actually be a useful vendor...

    PSN (PS4-Europe): Carolus-Billius
  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    That is a nice wrap. Also, that pearl material...

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • hlprmnkyhlprmnky Registered User regular
    So I logged in to look at this wrap and iridescent material and picked them both up because I am a filthy whale and then I took my newly-snazzed-up Colossus out for a spin. Last bit of Freeplay for the session, I'm coming up out of Crescent Lake where I've just done a dungeon/Lost Sector/whatever they're called, and I get a world event ping. Directly above me. Dominion supply caches, dotted all along the lakeshore.
    I roar up out of the water, close enough that the Dominion are already shooting as soon as they see me. I pop shield, ease the stick forward, and come down in a graceful-but-headfirst arc into a pile of Shocktroopers. My landing punch eliminates them, a Frost Hound, and one of the six caches.

    "Kaiju! KAAAIIIJUUUUU!"

    [Kaiju laughs in Colossus]

    _
    Your Ad Here! Reasonable Rates!
  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    Gamestop's already selling this for $30, in case anyone's wondering how things are going.

    Switch: 3947-4890-9293
  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    Gamestop's already selling this for $30, in case anyone's wondering how things are going.

    Going from hlprmonky's post to this... I have to ask: what was your point in bringing this up?

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    Some people were waiting for a price drop, I think. Worded inelegantly, but still.

  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Some people were waiting for a price drop, I think. Worded inelegantly, but still.

    Digital is still full price.

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • dporowskidporowski Registered User regular
    As was said on the last page, there is a massive enthusiasm for shitting on this game in particular. Whatcha gonna do?

  • The WolfmanThe Wolfman Registered User regular
    Well there's also the fact that the fate of this game is going to be linked to whether or not the name BioWare is even a thing 5 years from now.

    "The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited May 2019
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    Gamestop's already selling this for $30, in case anyone's wondering how things are going.

    Going from hlprmonky's post to this... I have to ask: what was your point in bringing this up?

    I'm obsessed with the biz, and how well games do, especially if they have unusual development circumstances. (As Anthem definitely does.) This isn't a judgement call on the quality of the game, or anyone who likes or dislikes the game. (I didn't put it in my post.) I just take an interest in the nuts and bolts of the industry. If you don't that's fine, but don't nerdshame me for taking an interest and posting where appropriate.

    cloudeagle on
    Switch: 3947-4890-9293
  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    dporowski wrote: »
    As was said on the last page, there is a massive enthusiasm for shitting on this game in particular. Whatcha gonna do?

    Indeed... but I just don't understand the point of that response. Like, even assuming that it was a post that simply failed miserably at reading the room, and not an attempt to undercut a positive trend in discussion about a thing as those people are wont to do... the idea that physical copies of Anthem, a game released months ago, getting steep cuts is somehow a measure of how things are going is silly. Especially given Anthem was still the second-Biggest BioWare Release Ever (ME 3 being their best), and it was in the top 3 best physical sellers for the first quarter of 2019 according to NPD or whatever. The facts regarding its sales—despite reviews, issues, and narrative—really just make the remark difficult to not assume the latter. I mean, it would have been meaningful thing to say had the price dropped like that in March, not May.

    And there's already substantive commentary about how things were going in the form of EA's recent quarterly whatever from last page. The first thing being that despite its sales, it under-performed (they forecast 5-6 million units, iirc). And further down that release, the likely reasoning for the drop in physical unit price is presented:
    Full game PC and console downloads generated net bookings of $213 million, 10% higher than last year. Growth was driven by the launch of Anthem and by the ongoing shift to digital. Overall, 49% of our units sold through were digital rather than physical, measured on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 over the last twelve months. The Q4 mix benefitted from the launch of Anthem, which, judging from sales so far, is the most digital game we have ever launched.

    More digital sales and less physical sales, means more reason to eliminate physical stock. Even if Anthem's launch went better in terms of reviews, its technical issues and narrative, it being a strong digital seller over physical would still contribute to a steeper cut in physical copy prices over time. Maybe not 50%, but 30-40%... but IDK. There aren't even any physical copies of the PC version afaik.

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • BRIAN BLESSEDBRIAN BLESSED Maybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHH Registered User regular
    The physical PC version was literally a piece of cardboard in an empty DVD case
    It was shit when EA started doing it and it continues to be shit

  • spool32spool32 Contrary Library Registered User regular
    edited May 2019
    How is matchmaking right now? Crashiness?

    I'd like to come back but idk what the state of things is with the core... game-ness...

    does the damn thing still drop missions and crash a lot?

    spool32 on
  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    while I bought Anthem, and a few of other games new digitally recently (primarily because I didn't feel like swapping discs)... not really keen on the idea of all-digital consoles either.

    what platform were you playing on, spool? There's been a bit of patching and whatnot since launch, but PC gaming can be a crapshoot when it comes to patches and all, so IDK.

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • ThegreatcowThegreatcow Lord of All Bacons Washington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered User regular
    edited May 2019
    Alrighty folks thanks for waiting. As promised earlier, now that my computer is up and running, I was able to compile some of the highlights of the Anthem Artbook into an imgur gallery for your perusal. If you want to just look at the gallery without my commentary, here's a link to the entire gallery. It's about 100 images long. I'll try to break down some of groups of images I found particularly interesting.

    https://imgur.com/a/i3mfw7s

    nVb0aDu.jpg

    Intro - Cover and Original Concepts

    Probably the saddest part of the whole book. Seeing what the original idea for anthem sounds bloody cool as hell. The concept of the "bermuda triangle of space", having to kitbash gear together just to survive, and the bulker/bashed together concepts of the mechs sound incredible not gonna lie. I particularly like their focus on taking design cues from nasa. Gives a very "near future" vibe to the whole thing.

    https://imgur.com/6bCN70m
    https://imgur.com/ApYySJa
    https://imgur.com/8QuEJjZ
    https://imgur.com/Fe9utm7
    https://imgur.com/gcBXO2N
    https://imgur.com/fZ52ujv
    https://imgur.com/3YJSShx
    https://imgur.com/D6DvBue
    https://imgur.com/84nOHSv
    https://imgur.com/SGVh7I1

    https://imgur.com/E3jF9ge
    Interesting note is that the pilot was originally designed as female before any other concepts were explored.

    The Ranger Javelin

    The book has a ton of concept art about the Ranger javelin. You can definitely get the vibe this was going to be the "face" of Anthem, even if you haven't seen the box art, the sheer amount of included concept art for this javelin is quite impressive.

    https://imgur.com/BsUwIh4
    https://imgur.com/H6wGxBT
    https://imgur.com/RxVxYjq (probably my favorite javelin concept. Love the duster concept)
    https://imgur.com/deJct2C
    https://imgur.com/Fz6FJHd
    https://imgur.com/anTSYkE
    https://imgur.com/gXemLEi (Just the sheer amount of iteration on the default face gear is nuts)

    The Interceptor Javelin

    Here you can see a wide variety of design experimentation, though all kinda come back to the "knife" concept. Kind of cool to see how it evolved from having wings to even having drones follow it around.

    https://imgur.com/NsrRstf
    https://imgur.com/9dF171n
    https://imgur.com/7chK8db
    https://imgur.com/NZrwSAW

    The Storm Javelin

    Another interesting series of evolutions with this suit. Particularly how this suit design influenced the overall design them (or vice-versa?) of how the Dominion's overall aesthetic would end up being. Some of the early concepts look downright freaky. Like cyberpunk/mage-tech vibe kind of freaky with hoses going everywhere. Another cool concept about the dominion was this was going to be the type of suit that elites within Dominion society would wear and how having glamorous fabrics draped over the suit were a sign of wealth.

    https://imgur.com/61tHgjj
    https://imgur.com/QiMHIum
    https://imgur.com/VFThA0M
    https://imgur.com/ZbyrdDT (Hello, would you like to hear about the coming of Cthulu?)
    https://imgur.com/omacXaC
    https://imgur.com/mrgptNv

    The Colossus Javelin

    Apparently this was the most "straightforward" out of all the javelins to design and went through the least amount of iteration. Bioware basically knew it was going to be "the tank" and approached the design aesthetic from that perspective.

    https://imgur.com/mZ8Xyhi
    https://imgur.com/M4L9LBg
    https://imgur.com/aw6DnFj
    https://imgur.com/btFgE2l

    Weapons

    One of the more interesting questions I always had about the weapon design, was why the heck did all of the rifles and guns etc had all those weird protruding bars and handles everywhere. Finally now I know. They're basically over-sized trigger/bump guards. Which, I guess makes sense if you're bolting this to the side of a large mech that's flying/jumping/exploding all over the place, you probably want to protect your hardware as much as you can.

    https://imgur.com/MpHV5r2
    https://imgur.com/SG2ud81
    https://imgur.com/VmCa4En (Apparently there were going to be "lines" of weapon styles based on what faction they came from. really sad this didn't get explored or shown off in the game.
    https://imgur.com/lIzZGAQ (One of the grenade launcher designs appeared to originally only be for the Scars)
    https://imgur.com/pjSD33r
    https://imgur.com/SqEg2VH (Did you know Rangers and Interceptors were supposed to have swords? I guess we were supposed to have neato retractable swords!)

    -CONTINUED

    Thegreatcow on
  • ThegreatcowThegreatcow Lord of All Bacons Washington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered User regular
    edited May 2019
    Environments

    One of the things that always bugged me about Anthem's current environments is how there are tons of buildings and small villages scattered all over the world, yet none of them appear habitable or lived in. Apparently there were plans to have settlements evolve and change as the game went on. And there were several other environments that never made it into the final game. Places like sulfur springs (ala Yellowstone) or massive lava fields or deep dark swamps were cut from the final game. Also loved to hear the variety of real world locales they got inspiration from for the various spots in the game.

    https://imgur.com/f0fi5lD
    https://imgur.com/ShRwj9M
    https://imgur.com/tjlqpyW (really love these concepts of settlements utilizing old Shaper tech. Gives a nice Simon Stahleng vibe to it.)
    https://imgur.com/ORNr34x
    https://imgur.com/IJ2yXi0
    https://imgur.com/sW7Mkx8
    https://imgur.com/d5i8Pbq (The launching off point of Fort Tarsis went through a bunch of iterations. They really wanted to nail the "epic" vista feel from here.
    https://imgur.com/PwikuUB
    https://imgur.com/MR47A9g
    https://imgur.com/eBM5n9S

    https://imgur.com/hwQNtdL
    https://imgur.com/BlSAPw1
    The Forge of Ft. Tarsis was originally going to be a larger more detailed area, including a "hall of heroes" that would showcase javelin "models" of the current top players of a "leaderboards" function they had planned to implement. It would be kind of a "temple/church" setup.

    Creatures

    Ton of good stuff here. There was going to be a lot more creepy/bug-like stuff in this game, plus there were going to be these "ultra" sized creatures that would randomly roam the world and potentially be a massive fights you would have to loop in people to engage with.

    https://imgur.com/ojYO60z
    https://imgur.com/uxUyM2C
    https://imgur.com/DqMSQxg
    https://imgur.com/MFwcMK1
    https://imgur.com/h0aD6lz (The big chonky Leviathan. Not gonna lie, I hope they integrate this in the game somehow in the future)
    https://imgur.com/GMNPDef (Titans sounded way cooler like this. Like they basically pop out of the ground/walls and you have to sort of "activate" them in order to fight them.)

    Factions

    Another section of missed potential. The factions they were exploring seem to indicate that there was a lot more planned. Like we would be visiting whole cities and doing specific quests for them. Each of them would be providing different rewards, and the layout of each city was unique and interesting. Really sad to see so little of this make the final game.


    Sentinels

    Probably changed the least from the final game. Your standard paladins/lawbringers to the whole world. Apparently they were going to have an "emperor"? not sure how it would have fit in the story, but I guess a "king" and "Knights" kind of thing?

    https://imgur.com/9wj0CtX
    https://imgur.com/VQfXn0R
    https://imgur.com/yf0sMHK

    Arcanists

    This faction sounded really cool. Their cities would be based in super tall rocky outcroppings due to their overall lack of manned defenses as their faction is primarily focused on science and research. Nice "ancient philosopher" aesthetic.

    https://imgur.com/NMvYWRm
    https://imgur.com/NiVE0dD
    https://imgur.com/Pp8frJt
    https://imgur.com/5JRYYxB

    Corvus

    Apparently the "super rich fancyville" faction. Not much of the book shows this off, so it looks like plans to explore this city or faction were abandoned early on.

    https://imgur.com/Z2Ai1wJ
    https://imgur.com/ggXC26F

    The Engineers

    Basically Anthem's Aedeptus Mechanicus. This was going to be the group responsible for the design and manufacture of the Striders and lots of weaponry. Their cities were basically giant forges, with city-wide celebrations when a new Strider was built and launched. Pretty cool stuff.

    https://imgur.com/ZfBBYhE
    https://imgur.com/hQGEkW9


    Regulators

    Not much on these guys. Liked the nomadic feel they seemed to be giving. Would have nice to have seen regulator camps springing up in freeplay.

    https://imgur.com/oT2BkMs
    https://imgur.com/HbxuTJC

    The Dominion

    The vibe here seems be "Future Tevinter". Lot of evil rich elite looking folks with a predilection for fucking around with nasty tech/shit. I get the impression we were supposed to infiltrate the main city to steal something here given the sheer amount of stuff here. Apparently they were also supposed to have massive "Crawler-type" mobile bases to setup shop and take over an area, and even these got cut too. Lot of missed opportunities here.

    https://imgur.com/VTiWzN0
    https://imgur.com/e2sw5tZ
    https://imgur.com/0hYs2MF
    https://imgur.com/cKNSCSl (They were even supposed to have their own version of the Colossus!)

    Here's the creepy techno-shit they were getting up to. Bioware really toned down or cut what these originally were going to look like.

    https://imgur.com/DOaGwBa
    https://imgur.com/X2XqDne

    Iterations on "The Monitor" kinda wish they went with the full gold mask imo. Would have stood out a bit more.

    https://imgur.com/P1XOEH4
    https://imgur.com/y9Rl4Ru

    -CONTINUED

    Thegreatcow on
  • ThegreatcowThegreatcow Lord of All Bacons Washington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered User regular
    edited May 2019
    The Scars

    Creepy Polluting Scavengers who apparently leave puddles of oil behind and destroy everything they touch. Didn't seem to have much on them. They're basically outcasts/regulators who've gone off the reservation or something, at least originally before they became full bug people that they are currently. Their whole shtick was apparently to take over and debase structures as they occupied them.

    https://imgur.com/lS6fvsk
    https://imgur.com/hvtfe0X
    https://imgur.com/VHi3zJR (When there never is enough Dakka)
    https://imgur.com/Gxeqh67
    https://imgur.com/Mwag3C5
    https://imgur.com/LibCd5D

    Striders

    Nice blurbs on the reasoning behind the strider design. There were lots of plans to use these as mobile launch bases but never really got fleshed out as we know.

    https://imgur.com/WFoOkoh
    https://imgur.com/yvnsgGN
    https://imgur.com/fKkRBBA
    https://imgur.com/5P6pA6k

    Legion of the Dawn Armor

    Some nice early concepts of the Legion of Dawn and early javelin builds. Nice look here.

    https://imgur.com/oLRozfY
    https://imgur.com/w7x5zeU


    Shaper Tech

    Definitely nailed the idea of these massive boring machines and odd structures left behind that we can only guess at. I guess they wanted us to do more exploring and spelunking inside these old ruins than we got to. Some really impressive concepts I would have loved to see more of in the actual game.

    https://imgur.com/lG6Qsf5
    https://imgur.com/94bUB1k
    https://imgur.com/ktG9Xsu
    https://imgur.com/xxZn7c6
    https://imgur.com/X1eEvHH
    https://imgur.com/3Wh9OXc

    And that about covers it! Again, so many awesome concepts presented in this book along with the artwork. There's more in the book than I was able to present here, and it shows off more environment design and monster design I didn't get a chance to take more pics of (plus I figured it was getting massive already). Here's hoping we eventually see this fleshed out in the game at some point. There's just so much damn potential here. I really don't want it to sit in just some artbook that people will forget about.

    Thegreatcow on
  • spool32spool32 Contrary Library Registered User regular
    while I bought Anthem, and a few of other games new digitally recently (primarily because I didn't feel like swapping discs)... not really keen on the idea of all-digital consoles either.

    what platform were you playing on, spool? There's been a bit of patching and whatnot since launch, but PC gaming can be a crapshoot when it comes to patches and all, so IDK.

    PC and it ran mostly ok but sometimes framerate would tank, or I'd get DC'd from a mission and we'd have to all start over...

  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited May 2019
    dporowski wrote: »
    As was said on the last page, there is a massive enthusiasm for shitting on this game in particular. Whatcha gonna do?

    Indeed... but I just don't understand the point of that response. Like, even assuming that it was a post that simply failed miserably at reading the room, and not an attempt to undercut a positive trend in discussion about a thing as those people are wont to do... the idea that physical copies of Anthem, a game released months ago, getting steep cuts is somehow a measure of how things are going is silly. Especially given Anthem was still the second-Biggest BioWare Release Ever (ME 3 being their best), and it was in the top 3 best physical sellers for the first quarter of 2019 according to NPD or whatever. The facts regarding its sales—despite reviews, issues, and narrative—really just make the remark difficult to not assume the latter. I mean, it would have been meaningful thing to say had the price dropped like that in March, not May.

    And there's already substantive commentary about how things were going in the form of EA's recent quarterly whatever from last page. The first thing being that despite its sales, it under-performed (they forecast 5-6 million units, iirc). And further down that release, the likely reasoning for the drop in physical unit price is presented:
    Full game PC and console downloads generated net bookings of $213 million, 10% higher than last year. Growth was driven by the launch of Anthem and by the ongoing shift to digital. Overall, 49% of our units sold through were digital rather than physical, measured on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 over the last twelve months. The Q4 mix benefitted from the launch of Anthem, which, judging from sales so far, is the most digital game we have ever launched.

    More digital sales and less physical sales, means more reason to eliminate physical stock. Even if Anthem's launch went better in terms of reviews, its technical issues and narrative, it being a strong digital seller over physical would still contribute to a steeper cut in physical copy prices over time. Maybe not 50%, but 30-40%... but IDK. There aren't even any physical copies of the PC version afaik.

    The only reason Anthem had more digital sales is because of the weird Origin pre-launch dribble, which encouraged people to try it out without really hooking into the full price of the game. And besides, having to fire sale physical is still a fire sale. Anthem, as EA made clear, missed expectations. Considering EA talked up Apex Legends much, MUCH more than Anthem in the "whatever" report, I'm guessing it really didn't meet expectations. While a March price drop would have been mind-boggling, getting a price drop by half in less than two months simply doesn't happen. It's an indicator something's gone seriously wrong. Yes, it made a lot of money, but it's becoming clear it's not making nearly enough money to cover expectations, or even development.

    Also, second-biggest Bioware release ever doesn't quite mean much considering (after ME3, their biggest) the latest Dragon Age was only a modest hit, Mass Effect Andromeda bombed, and development costs have ballooned since ME3 came out.

    Also, thanks for keeping things positive by calling me "those people."

    cloudeagle on
    Switch: 3947-4890-9293
  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    spool32 wrote: »
    while I bought Anthem, and a few of other games new digitally recently (primarily because I didn't feel like swapping discs)... not really keen on the idea of all-digital consoles either.

    what platform were you playing on, spool? There's been a bit of patching and whatnot since launch, but PC gaming can be a crapshoot when it comes to patches and all, so IDK.

    PC and it ran mostly ok but sometimes framerate would tank, or I'd get DC'd from a mission and we'd have to all start over...

    There was a thread on reddit suggesting that the recent crashes were isolated to Ryzen CPUs or something, would have to trudge through the reddit to find it though. But outside of that, I believe the product has been generally more stable via the patches.

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • LilnoobsLilnoobs Alpha Queue Registered User regular
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    dporowski wrote: »
    As was said on the last page, there is a massive enthusiasm for shitting on this game in particular. Whatcha gonna do?

    Indeed... but I just don't understand the point of that response. Like, even assuming that it was a post that simply failed miserably at reading the room, and not an attempt to undercut a positive trend in discussion about a thing as those people are wont to do... the idea that physical copies of Anthem, a game released months ago, getting steep cuts is somehow a measure of how things are going is silly. Especially given Anthem was still the second-Biggest BioWare Release Ever (ME 3 being their best), and it was in the top 3 best physical sellers for the first quarter of 2019 according to NPD or whatever. The facts regarding its sales—despite reviews, issues, and narrative—really just make the remark difficult to not assume the latter. I mean, it would have been meaningful thing to say had the price dropped like that in March, not May.

    And there's already substantive commentary about how things were going in the form of EA's recent quarterly whatever from last page. The first thing being that despite its sales, it under-performed (they forecast 5-6 million units, iirc). And further down that release, the likely reasoning for the drop in physical unit price is presented:
    Full game PC and console downloads generated net bookings of $213 million, 10% higher than last year. Growth was driven by the launch of Anthem and by the ongoing shift to digital. Overall, 49% of our units sold through were digital rather than physical, measured on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 over the last twelve months. The Q4 mix benefitted from the launch of Anthem, which, judging from sales so far, is the most digital game we have ever launched.

    More digital sales and less physical sales, means more reason to eliminate physical stock. Even if Anthem's launch went better in terms of reviews, its technical issues and narrative, it being a strong digital seller over physical would still contribute to a steeper cut in physical copy prices over time. Maybe not 50%, but 30-40%... but IDK. There aren't even any physical copies of the PC version afaik.

    The only reason Anthem had more digital sales is because of the weird Origin pre-launch dribble, which encouraged people to try it out without really hooking into the full price of the game. And besides, having to fire sale physical is still a fire sale. Anthem, as EA made clear, missed expectations. Considering EA talked up Apex Legends much, MUCH more than Anthem in the "whatever" report, I'm guessing it really didn't meet expectations. While a March price drop would have been mind-boggling, getting a price drop by half in less than two months simply doesn't happen. It's an indicator something's gone seriously wrong. Yes, it made a lot of money, but it's becoming clear it's not making nearly enough money to cover expectations, or even development.

    Also, second-biggest Bioware release ever doesn't quite mean much considering (after ME3, their biggest) the latest Dragon Age was only a modest hit, Mass Effect Andromeda bombed, and development costs have ballooned since ME3 came out.

    Also, thanks for keeping things positive by calling me "those people."

    Oh, considering it's the only game that no specific financial numbers were mentioned in the report, we can assume it tanked pretty hard. Reading on, it seems like Apex Legends single handily carried the "games as service" front at EA, which gives me feelings on the matter.

    Net bookings were $1.36 billion, well above our guidance of $1.17 billion, and up from $1.26billion last year. As mentioned, the beat was driven by Apex Legends and our sports titles, offset somewhat by Anthem.

    And in other news, EA only has an 18% tax rate, jesus.

  • ThegreatcowThegreatcow Lord of All Bacons Washington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered User regular
    Not gonna lie, in a roundabout twisted sort of sense, I could actually see ea continue to bolster Anthem simply on account of how lean their portfolio is and upcoming threats to their microtransaction/live-service business model. Anti-Lootbox/Gambling legislation continues to slowly build around the world. Granted it's far off from really being realized, but it's getting there, and a fair amount of public perception has pretty much made lootboxes verboten outside of established sport/mobile titles. Apex Legends, while it made a big splash is, according to twitch viewership numbers anyway, having a fairly steep fall-off in players when compared to the other big players in the BR genre. Why is up to your choice of reason I guess, I never really played it much, but it seems anything from a lack of content to cheaters etc, but it does seem to be settling down after its large splash from February.

    Aside from their FIFA/Madden franchises, ea simply don't have that many live service products really going for them. Battlefield V really under performed and most folks didn't really utilize their microtransaction shop. Anthem might be a way to sort of have their cake and eat it too. They can claim they support "narrative driven RPGs" by continuing to let Bioware operate, and they get another revenue stream with Anthem.

    Granted a lot will depend on Bioware un-fucking a lot of aspects of this game, but if they can show progress, I could see ea continuing to provide support as a small hedge against continued threats/depressed earnings from their big sports franchises.

  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited May 2019
    Not gonna lie, in a roundabout twisted sort of sense, I could actually see ea continue to bolster Anthem simply on account of how lean their portfolio is and upcoming threats to their microtransaction/live-service business model. Anti-Lootbox/Gambling legislation continues to slowly build around the world. Granted it's far off from really being realized, but it's getting there, and a fair amount of public perception has pretty much made lootboxes verboten outside of established sport/mobile titles. Apex Legends, while it made a big splash is, according to twitch viewership numbers anyway, having a fairly steep fall-off in players when compared to the other big players in the BR genre. Why is up to your choice of reason I guess, I never really played it much, but it seems anything from a lack of content to cheaters etc, but it does seem to be settling down after its large splash from February.

    Aside from their FIFA/Madden franchises, ea simply don't have that many live service products really going for them. Battlefield V really under performed and most folks didn't really utilize their microtransaction shop. Anthem might be a way to sort of have their cake and eat it too. They can claim they support "narrative driven RPGs" by continuing to let Bioware operate, and they get another revenue stream with Anthem.

    Granted a lot will depend on Bioware un-fucking a lot of aspects of this game, but if they can show progress, I could see ea continuing to provide support as a small hedge against continued threats/depressed earnings from their big sports franchises.

    Beyond that, Anthem's entire reason for being is is to be another ongoing revenue stream. The up-front sales, while important, are only one half of the (hoped-for) equation. Even if it bombed harder than even the most pessimistic guesses, of course EA will continue to support it for the time being in hopes of converting the early buyers into long-term spenders.

    Which isn't impossible! Maybe Bioware can really turn things around and, at the very least, make it less of a disappointment. Then again, online-heavy games that have lengthy launch troubles (say, longer than Destiny's rough first month) generally don't reverse their fortunes. The only one that springs to mind is Final Fantasy 14, and that was after a major overhaul of the entire game. (Or am I missing others?)

    Edit: There was that weird January when Sea of Thieves suddenly shot up to the top of the Twitch streaming ranks, but that was short-lived and probably says more about Twitch than Sea of Thieves.

    cloudeagle on
    Switch: 3947-4890-9293
  • hlprmnkyhlprmnky Registered User regular
    I spent $40 on Anthem cash shop scrip, and I'll happily do it again. I don't even get that much play time but when I do, I don't want to miss something really cool-looking because I'm short on coin.

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  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    Wasn't the glitter skin 850 shards? What else did you buy?

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • hlprmnkyhlprmnky Registered User regular
    Oh, I didn't spend all forty bucks this last weekend. I bought the shards a couple weeks ago as a way to kinda poke a maker hook into the flesh of the sandworm that is EA, and when I run out because I've seen forty dollars worth of stuff I cannot say no to, I will stab in another hook. I know I can't really make the worm go where I want, but I can at least try to keep it oriented toward "more Anthem".

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  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    Gotcha. That sparkly wrap was really the first "must grab" out of that group of materials. Wouldn't be surprised if it got a bump and nudge them to do more wraps like that vs the solid black and lime one and what was the other one? I think it was gold? It was definitely a step up from the solid black and lime one.

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • ForarForar #432 Toronto, Ontario, CanadaRegistered User regular
    I've bought the N7 vinyl, 3 suits of armour, and a ton of materials. I'm finally starting to run out of coin (those 3 suits set me back a bunch, and my playtime fell right off in the past few weeks, the last week in particular), but hope to get a few hours before the reset to at least bump up another alliance tier or three.

    I'm tempted to grab that sparkly wrap, it looks pretty great. Not sure it's worth snagging with real money, but tempting all the same.

    First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
  • KafkaAUKafkaAU Western AustraliaRegistered User regular
    on PC my performance is rubbish when I have it full screen, but windowed is fine.

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  • ThegreatcowThegreatcow Lord of All Bacons Washington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered User regular
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    Not gonna lie, in a roundabout twisted sort of sense, I could actually see ea continue to bolster Anthem simply on account of how lean their portfolio is and upcoming threats to their microtransaction/live-service business model. Anti-Lootbox/Gambling legislation continues to slowly build around the world. Granted it's far off from really being realized, but it's getting there, and a fair amount of public perception has pretty much made lootboxes verboten outside of established sport/mobile titles. Apex Legends, while it made a big splash is, according to twitch viewership numbers anyway, having a fairly steep fall-off in players when compared to the other big players in the BR genre. Why is up to your choice of reason I guess, I never really played it much, but it seems anything from a lack of content to cheaters etc, but it does seem to be settling down after its large splash from February.

    Aside from their FIFA/Madden franchises, ea simply don't have that many live service products really going for them. Battlefield V really under performed and most folks didn't really utilize their microtransaction shop. Anthem might be a way to sort of have their cake and eat it too. They can claim they support "narrative driven RPGs" by continuing to let Bioware operate, and they get another revenue stream with Anthem.

    Granted a lot will depend on Bioware un-fucking a lot of aspects of this game, but if they can show progress, I could see ea continuing to provide support as a small hedge against continued threats/depressed earnings from their big sports franchises.

    Beyond that, Anthem's entire reason for being is is to be another ongoing revenue stream. The up-front sales, while important, are only one half of the (hoped-for) equation. Even if it bombed harder than even the most pessimistic guesses, of course EA will continue to support it for the time being in hopes of converting the early buyers into long-term spenders.

    Which isn't impossible! Maybe Bioware can really turn things around and, at the very least, make it less of a disappointment. Then again, online-heavy games that have lengthy launch troubles (say, longer than Destiny's rough first month) generally don't reverse their fortunes. The only one that springs to mind is Final Fantasy 14, and that was after a major overhaul of the entire game. (Or am I missing others?)

    Edit: There was that weird January when Sea of Thieves suddenly shot up to the top of the Twitch streaming ranks, but that was short-lived and probably says more about Twitch than Sea of Thieves.

    Yeah Aside from FF14, Division 1 had Patch 1.8 way down the line that supposedly improved the overall quality of life for a lot of people from what I heard. Destiny 2 had the "Forsaken" expansion pretty deep into its life before many would consider it "good" from the chatter I heard 2ndhand. I guess we'll have to see if Bioware can pull a similar comeback. They're going to be going up against some stiff competition with Borderlands 3 though. :-/

  • cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    Not gonna lie, in a roundabout twisted sort of sense, I could actually see ea continue to bolster Anthem simply on account of how lean their portfolio is and upcoming threats to their microtransaction/live-service business model. Anti-Lootbox/Gambling legislation continues to slowly build around the world. Granted it's far off from really being realized, but it's getting there, and a fair amount of public perception has pretty much made lootboxes verboten outside of established sport/mobile titles. Apex Legends, while it made a big splash is, according to twitch viewership numbers anyway, having a fairly steep fall-off in players when compared to the other big players in the BR genre. Why is up to your choice of reason I guess, I never really played it much, but it seems anything from a lack of content to cheaters etc, but it does seem to be settling down after its large splash from February.

    Aside from their FIFA/Madden franchises, ea simply don't have that many live service products really going for them. Battlefield V really under performed and most folks didn't really utilize their microtransaction shop. Anthem might be a way to sort of have their cake and eat it too. They can claim they support "narrative driven RPGs" by continuing to let Bioware operate, and they get another revenue stream with Anthem.

    Granted a lot will depend on Bioware un-fucking a lot of aspects of this game, but if they can show progress, I could see ea continuing to provide support as a small hedge against continued threats/depressed earnings from their big sports franchises.

    Beyond that, Anthem's entire reason for being is is to be another ongoing revenue stream. The up-front sales, while important, are only one half of the (hoped-for) equation. Even if it bombed harder than even the most pessimistic guesses, of course EA will continue to support it for the time being in hopes of converting the early buyers into long-term spenders.

    Which isn't impossible! Maybe Bioware can really turn things around and, at the very least, make it less of a disappointment. Then again, online-heavy games that have lengthy launch troubles (say, longer than Destiny's rough first month) generally don't reverse their fortunes. The only one that springs to mind is Final Fantasy 14, and that was after a major overhaul of the entire game. (Or am I missing others?)

    Edit: There was that weird January when Sea of Thieves suddenly shot up to the top of the Twitch streaming ranks, but that was short-lived and probably says more about Twitch than Sea of Thieves.

    Yeah Aside from FF14, Division 1 had Patch 1.8 way down the line that supposedly improved the overall quality of life for a lot of people from what I heard. Destiny 2 had the "Forsaken" expansion pretty deep into its life before many would consider it "good" from the chatter I heard 2ndhand. I guess we'll have to see if Bioware can pull a similar comeback. They're going to be going up against some stiff competition with Borderlands 3 though. :-/

    Dunno about Division 1, but considering Activision sold Destiny I'm guessing Forsaken didn't move the money needle much. Good on both of them for fixing things for the players, though.

    I'll be curious to see if Borderlands 3 makes a dent in the other online shooters, definitely. Though Anthem already faces stiff competition with Apex Legends. I'm still a little baffled EA didn't spread Apex and Anthem out more, but hey, hindsight.

    Switch: 3947-4890-9293
  • soylenthsoylenth Portland, ORRegistered User regular
    I tried apex but it's not a game type I'm interested in, no matter how much I like the characters/classes. And Forsaken was good story-wise, but the economy changes it brought were enough to finally make me quit the game after playing since launch of D1.

    I need to log back into this one though, I still need to try the new fortress. Not going to lie, been playing around with DA:I a bit and have been missing the "old" bioware way of doing things. That said, still actively like the combat and movement, hope there's more content for it down the road.

  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    edited May 2019
    tastydonuts on
    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • BRIAN BLESSEDBRIAN BLESSED Maybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHH Registered User regular
    lol nice

  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    edited May 2019
    The wrap this cycle after forgettable and "Kingdom Hearts" double wraps last week is "80s Neon"

    This should have been a decal on it:

    stfmalfmw5k7.png

    tastydonuts on
    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • BRIAN BLESSEDBRIAN BLESSED Maybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHH Registered User regular
    I'm a big fan of the javelin sets I've seen in the last week. Really keen to see more non-Ranger sets (like Regal) in the future though

  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    Weekly Vendor Reset (img via reddit):

    ls1gbg5ogo5y.png

    I feel like the prices and rarity for these should have been swapped, but eh!

    Some kinda decepticon and Groot... or a generic treant. IDK.


    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • Phoenix138Phoenix138 ArizonaRegistered User regular
  • ThegreatcowThegreatcow Lord of All Bacons Washington State - It's Wet up here innit? Registered User regular
    Phoenix138 wrote: »

    Nice, and a stream talking about the cataclysm is apparently going up tomorrow as well. Though truth be told, I'd much rather hear them talk about overhauling the loot system or something along those lines. I dunno, maybe that will come with the Cataclysm update, but I sincerely hope they eventually get around to addressing that.

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