Electronic Arts today revealed it’s ending development work on Anthem NEXT the ambitious revamp in the works for its problem child, Anthem. It’ll leave the game running as it is. While it’s probably not a surprise given how poor Anthem’s reception was and how little positive news it’s generated since then, it’s still a shame to see any hope of Anthem becoming the game it was intended to be extinguished.
Bioware revealed the decision in a blog post authored by executive producer Christian Dailey, who said, “In the spirit of transparency and closure we wanted to share that we’ve made the difficult decision to stop our new development work on Anthem (aka Anthem NEXT). We will, however, continue to keep the Anthem live service running as it exists today.”
Bioware has some big projects on the horizon that are probably going to get much better press than Anthem NEXT, including new Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles. Reportedly, the development team that was working on Anthem NEXT will be transitioned into working on Bioware’s next big game, Dragon Age 4. Dailey added that, in addition to developing new games in the aforementioned series, Bioware will continue to update Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Dailey said the restrictions of COVID-related working conditions are to blame, but one wonders at that considering the studio is, by their own admission, doing just fine on everything else. Given how poor the reception to Anthem was when it was first launched, and how little goodwill it’s managed to regain in the meantime, it’s possible EA decided that sinking any more time and resources into it would be a waste. While Anthem may have been few gamers’ favorite game, it was still a product of a good studio and came from a genuinely interesting concept, so it’s sad to see it being left behind.
Source: Bioware Blog
