Following the cancellation of Anthem Next, EA reportedly decided to remove all planned multiplayer content from Dragon Age 4.
As Bloomberg reports, EA considers Dragon Age 4 crucial to BioWare’s success after the studio’s two most recent games, Anthem and Mass Effect Andromeda, received warm responses from critics and gamers.
On Wednesday, EA canceled all future development of Anthem Next, which was originally planned to be a major overhaul that would reignite interest in the game. Along with the cancellation, BioWare noted that “it would need to focus our efforts as a studio and strengthen the upcoming Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles”, as well as continue to support Star Wars: The Old Republic.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson and other key executives compared the critical and sales success of the single-player Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order to the failure of Anthem when it decided to change the focus and make Dragon Age 4 an RPG strictly for one player.
In 2019, BioWare developers told Kotaku that Dragon Age 4 could include “live service” components like Anthem, adding that these elements would not be central to the experience.
“The idea was that Anthem would be the online game and that Dragon Age and Mass Effect, although they can experiment with portions online, that’s not what defines them as franchises,” said a developer. “I don’t think you’re going to see us change these franchises completely.”
In today’s report, Bloomberg sources described Dragon Age 4 as having “a heavy multiplayer component” before EA decided to return to the single-player experience for which BioWare became known through the Dragon Age and Mass Effect franchises. We contacted EA for clarification on all of this and will update our reports if we receive a response.
We have contacted EA for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
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