Kotaku - Sources: BioWare Plans A Complete Overhaul For Anthem

Imagine this nightmare...

The new Anthem will be released in... 2022. They gobble together all resources and people and drop them in one kettle to stir and boil it into... Something.

And the result is...

The new Anthem will take place in a newly found global cluster somewhere in the Andomeda nebula, and the researchers have noticed that the there are planets that have real dragons, and some mystery force that is called magic. The planets are inhibited not only with humans (a big mystery how they got there), but also a race that resembles Elves, and some strange huge humanoid-like race that posesses horns and a strange religy. Other planets seem to be overtaken by Artificial Intelligence robot-like creatures, a violent race that calls itself Kriegons, or Karons or something like that, a humanoid-like blue-skinned race, and some other races that seem strangely familiar for some reason. Oh - and there is also a whole fleet of spaceships that seem to be some nomadic race, but nobody has made contact so far.

Yeah... Whatever...

Anyway. More seriously. I would be nice if Anthem got a big SP part, that can be played fully off-line. But to be honest, the chances that this will happen are in my humble opinion astronomical low. I predict Anthem's new "step forward" will be an MMO. So in stead of more SP, they will cut out all SP components, and turn Anthem in a massive multiplayer "Game As Service" junkyard. Maybe they will even turn it into a streaming service, so you only get a local client and no game at all.

We will see, we will see...

It could be but I see it as a confusing one, here's how I'm looking at it (just guessing here) Andromeda sold as many copies as Anthem If not more but we never got any DLC'S etc. they just went and put it on ice, people still replay it now Anthem tanked in less in several months But is planning a major overhaul to save their live service game why not ice it ?  and work on what the fans want and in a shorter time I'm sure they will make more cash that way than wasting money on Anthem after all time is money and they are wasting a lot of it.     

Well, it depends. According to this article, we have a better understanding what happens to put a franchise on ice and what that means for the franchise going forward.


But that is useless for EA, without "recurrent player spending"


Because as a live service game, it has the "recurrent player spending" potential. Provided it recovers. EA will try it as many times, until it gets it right. They have the resources to funnel into it.


They obviously don't believe they can make the money on what you are proposing. Even so, EA cracking the code to "recurring player spending" with a formula to a game that keeps people occupied and committed in the long term is much more valuable to them in the long term than anything else.

The next Mass Effect will be more Anthem-like than you, or I, would care for, I'm afraid.


To EA that doesn't matter. Live Service is the Golden Goose and they are willing to sink as many funds into it as it needs, if it means finding the fine line it needs between predatory practice, I mean "recurring player spending" and player retention, EA is willing to invest all the FIFA money it has to accomplish that. They need that for their shareholders, their stock, their growth and their CEOs making money through stock manipulation.

That is pretty much worst case scenario if Edmonton puts most of its staff for the next 4 or 5 years on Anthem doing the overhaul. That would make DA4 come out maybe in 2027? And, then what happens if the Anthem overhaul fails? There might not even be a DA4 or a Bioware.

What is?

I think people are getting lost in the weeds with this unconfirmed report.  I highly doubt they are going to go back and make the game from the very beginning and redesign it that much.  To me this is going to be more of a systems overhaul such as loot, maybe enemy difficulties, possibly how difficult the game is to solo.  Those types of things are what I expect.  Things like making the game playable offline is something that would only happen with a brand new game.  For all we know they are going to have a series of patches that target something they want to address such as a major loot overhaul, then a few months later maybe something to subdivide the game into smaller areas, etc.

I mean...

www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/top-10/

Unless you can clarify what's wrong with ol' Sammy's statement, I'm gonna have to go with him on this one.
And I don't even give two shits about Anthem.

A lot of Bio devs working onAnthem,when you don't really want to play a game like Anthem, isn't a good thing.

I didn't notice that mention, funnily enough.

Still kinda ironic.

EA doesn't release Origin PC sales figures either so the amount listed is physical sales and digital sales for XBox and PS4

Do sales numbers even matter all that much anymore for a live service game? Recurrent user spending is where its at. But yes, clearly Anthem was successful enough to warrant EA putting more money into it.