Anthem Twitter Thread

Thanks for the link, it's a good read. Better than I expected. I'd thought it be a bunch of the usual EA-speak and double-talk, but Soderlund was pretty straight-forward, or seemed to be. The journalist asked softball questions though, way too much about Frostbite -- except for the one question that matters most, support for modding -- not enough about the new IP.

While I'm glad they are doing deep dives with their customers and learning, that should be table-stakes, not something "new" they just recently learned to do. Even indies should be doing that. Although, there is a fine line between using feedback to fine-tune your game vs. overturning your solid design because a few focus groupers didn't like it (shades of DCEU movies).

What I would have also liked to have heard is that they are learning from other game design studios as well. Or from experts in the field, like Extra Credits. There are so many stupid mistakes that AAA studios keep making. It's like they take turns making the same mistake. A little bit more back to basics and war-story sharing at GDC would help the entire AAA industry tremendously.