When Anthem launched in the beginning of the year, it unfortunately did not hit hard like EA and BioWare hoped and expected. Not only was the game itself mostly trashed critically, horror stories also leaked out about the game’s development, ones that painted the project as being one in constant state of flux and rebooting for years. Since then, the company has tried to improve the game, but it’s something they know is going to take a lot of time.
In blog post, BioWare general manager Casey Hudson acknowledged the long road ahead. He said that BioWare is doing what they can to turn the ship around, but that’s it’s going to take a very long time to fix and improve the experience. It’s something that players will need to have patience for.
“Over the last few weeks we’ve been ramping up our Cataclysm event – a season-long event with new arenas, enemies, challenges, and rewards,” says Hudson. “We have a big team in both Austin and Edmonton, and while it’s been great to see the community response to Cataclysm, I know there’s a lot more work to do to bring out the full potential of the game. We have plans for those more fundamental improvements, but they’ll take time. While the team works towards the longer-term vision of the game, they will also continue to deliver updates to features and content. I believe in Anthem and would love to see its world grow, evolve, and thrive for years to come. Thanks for your patience and support as we do the work of constantly improving and expanding the experience.”
Live service games have had some pretty amazing turnarounds in the past. The likes of Rainbow Six: Siege, for instance, started out soft, but eventually were built into a very successful project. Then there’s the miracle of Final Fantasy XIV, which launched as disaster for Sqaure Enix, but was rebuilt into a highly successful project with a massive playerbase.
The question becomes whether or not Anthem has the time. With the pace and frequency of game releases nowadays, it’s hard to see people revisiting the game en masse again, eight months to a year after its launch. It’d probably take a massive overhaul, along with a new marketing push. Whether it can done or not remains to be seen- only time will tell.