Anthem, the new shared world looter shooter by BioWare, has seen quite the critical mauling since its launch. Reviews have been largely negative, with everything other than how the game looks, its core game feel, and its central concepts, having been raked over the coals. GamingBolt’s own review very critically (but fairly) points out everything wrong with the game.
However, these negative reviews, which are also being reflected in weaker initial sales for the game, may not have to do with Anthem being a subpar product. According to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, at least, they are more indicative of the game having been reviewed on PC (where it was available first, thanks to EA’s Origin Access Premier service), while being a console game at heart.
“My personal view is that this is just not a PC game — there is flying in the game, and maneuvering your flying character is like driving a car; the controls just don’t work well for that on PC, and they work flawlessly on (video game consoles),” he said to CNBC.
Pachter went on to note that the console versions of the game will review at least 10 points higher on aggregate. Which they might even! Though that would likely be more because they will presumably have fewer reviews than the PC version will, which means a smaller sample size, and thus an easier higher possible average.
Pachter also feels that the staggered launch model EA is using for its games, and which it used for Anthem as well, hurt the game, with the week’s worth of negative word of mouth killing the hype for the title off the bat.
I do agree that in a weird way, the staggered early launch for Anthem seems to have been pro-consumer, since the people who got their hands on it earlier got to heed others off from actually spending time or money on it. Whether or not this is something EA continues to offer with its future games remains to be seen.