In January 2019, I was optimistic when I flew there BioWareThe headquarters is in Austin, Texas. I was invited to test anthem, the studio’s version of the live-service looter-shooter before it made its way into players’ hands. I was immediately blown away by the elegance of the demo, zipping through the levels like I was Iron Man in my Javelin suit, firing bugs with elemental rifles. I was convinced of that at the time anthem would be a generation-defining title that countless future AAA games would have to emulate. It turned out that a lot of them did. Even if they shouldn’t have done it.
At the time, BioWare was considered one of the best RPG makers in the industry – thanks to masterpieces like this Mass effect Trilogy, Knights of the Old Republic, And Origins of the Dragon Age –probably influenced my opinion a little. Sure, 2017 Mass Effect Andromeda was not just as popular upon release And had a troubled five years development cycle, but I hoped that BioWare had learned its lesson by this point.
But when the demonstration was opened to the public a few weeks later, five minute loading screens And Fly buggy sent my hopes to earth. If you could come into play, anthem had players take control of Freelancers piloting one of four Javelins and taking part in missions that involved either killing bugs and aliens or building towers. This gameplay loop quickly became boring and the loot you needed to farm barely made you feel stronger, making the grind all the more boring. Other than flying, there was no compelling reason to play.
The game’s technical limitations and lackluster gameplay were signs of a difficult five-year period Development cycle This led the creative team to change direction, lose dozens of employees, and rework the concept from scratch several times. EA and BioWare have released one few patches Over the next year, seasonal content will be added and some game-breaking bugs and audio issues will be fixed. But it wasn’t enough to blow the game away.
General Manager of BioWare Casey Hudson wrote this in a February 2020 blog post anthem would get a “significant reinvention.” But the hopes that this announcement raised were dashed in February 2021 when BioWare studio director Christian Dailey announced it another blog this development continues anthem finally ended.
Five years later, Anthem’S was largely forgotten, banished Clearance container and memes about the unique hope that there could be a “determination Murderer.” The servers are still online, but since EA controls them, there’s no telling how many freelancers are still hunting the Urgoth in the never-ending chaos of the Cataclysm.
Over the last decade we’ve seen a massive increase in live games with huge AAA budgets being canceled because they can’t find an audience. For every multi-million dollar contender like Fourteen days or League of Legendsthere are countless flops like that Space Punks, Crossfire Xor Paragon. These titles require studios to quickly expand their staff, spend exorbitant amounts of money, and hope that the trend will still be profitable and popular in two to three years. According to a current industry survey, There are currently over 500 live service games in development or maintenance.
Some studios are finally realizing that live service isn’t always a guaranteed cash cow, and that’s after the fact anthem feels like an early symptom of the carnage we are now witnessing. Bandai Namco recently acquired one big financial hit after his Genshin-How Blue protocol couldn’t arouse any interest. Warner Bros. said that their recently released looter shooter Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League “was below our expectations.” Last year, Sony announced that it would postpone six of its twelve planned live service titles, including Naughty Dog’s Last of us Multiplayer gamewhich was later officially canceled in late 2023. On February 27th PlayStation Almost 1,000 people were laid off, including reportedly a team from British studio Firesprite who were working on an unannounced project Twisted metal Live service project.
We’ve reached a point in the gaming industry where trends move faster than development cycles and the results are disastrous. All too often it is the ordinary people, the ordinary developers, who pay the price, as we have already seen with the shocking number of layoffs in 2024. anthem may have been a warning, but unfortunately it seems to have gone unheeded.
