I suspect we all predicted this when it was reported earlier this month that Electronic Arts would be deciding the fate of BioWare’s science fiction Anthem. BioWare announced today that it will no longer be working on its redesign called Anthem Next and instead will be focusing its attention on the upcoming Mass Effect and Dragon Age 4.
Executive producer Christian Dailey made the announcement today on the BioWare blog, saying it was a difficult decision and thanking the remaining Anthem players for their comments. “In the spirit of transparency and closure, we want to share that we made the difficult decision to stop our new development work at Anthem (also known as Anthem NEXT),” said Dailey. “We will, however, continue to keep Anthem’s active service running as it exists today.”
BioWare’s approach to a Destiny-like sci-fi adventure was not particularly well received when it launched in 2019, but it was not the end of its journey. Last February, BioWare announced plans to review Anthem with a small team of around 30 developers. They shared some high-level concepts last year, planning to spend their time reinventing the game.
It seems that these hands are more urgently needed elsewhere. “Not everything we planned as a studio before COVID-19 can be accomplished without undue stress on our teams,” says Dailey. “Moving forward, we need to focus our efforts as a studio and strengthen the upcoming titles of Dragon Age and Mass Effect, while continuing to provide quality updates for Star Wars: The Old Republic.”
“We believe in Anthem every step of the way, we have invested in this game for almost a decade and we are proud of the work the team has done,” Laura Miele, director of studios at EA, told IGN. “Anthem was a creative venture and his challenges have taught us a lot about game design and even how we can improve our development process. This benefits not only the developers, but also the players.” Like Dailey, Miele mentions that canceling work at Anthem will allow BioWare to focus on the upcoming Dragon Age and Mass Effect games.
As a Dragon Age fan, I have to admit it is a sigh of relief on my part. Good at BioWare for trying something new, but maybe going back to your tried and true series is the best.