EA and BioWare canceled their Anthem 2.0 project, canceling plans for what should be a revitalizing rework of BioWare’s failed 2019 online shooter Hymn.
This comes straight from BioWare, which posted a blog post about the decision this afternoon with the note that Hymn, as it exists today, will remain online for the foreseeable future.
“It is also disappointing for the team that was doing a brilliant job,” says BioWare Austin studio director Christian Dailey. In the full post, Dailey adds that the pandemic COVID-19 complicated the development of many of the studio’s projects, including the already precarious ones Hymn.
“For me personally, Hymn was what brought me to BioWare, and the past two years have been some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my career, “writes Dailey.
Planned as your own version of a persistent online shooter like Bungie’s Destiny, Hymn launched in early 2019 with a plethora of problems and sales well below EA’s expectations. Soon after the release, reports of a severe crisis in the studio emerged along with other details that painted a worrying picture of Hymnpre-launch development of.
Despite its reception, EA’s CEO said at the time that the company was not yet ready to cut its losses with Hymn and in early 2020, BioWare paused its seasonal update plans to work on a complete overhaul of the now-ill-fated game Anthem 2.0 or Anthem Next.
Earlier this month, a Bloomberg report leaked that EA would soon make a decision on whether the Anthem 2.0 the project must proceed. Following today’s news, Bloomberg reports separately that, according to its sources Anthem 2.0the small team of developers is going to the Dragon Age team.
“Game development is difficult. Decisions like these are not easy, ”says Dailey’s post on the BioWare blog. “Moving forward, we need to focus our efforts as a studio and strengthen the next Dragon Age, and Mass effect titles while continuing to provide quality updates for Star Wars: The Old Republic. “