Report: EA Plans To Reinvigorate Anthem With “Anthem Next” Initiative

BioWare’s latest project Anthem has shown to be what many would define as an absolute AAA failure due to the onslaught of plaguing bugs that lived within the sci-fi action RPG and continuous attempts to regain fan involvement with promising updates and even the anticipated Cataclysm did not make a dent. And with the most recent departure of Lead Producer Ben Irving back in August, many would assume any further development could be dropped within the near future.

However, that might not be the case, or even close to what’s planned for the February-released title according to a report from Kotaku. Outlet News Editor Jason Shreier has disclosed that there is a new initiative to revamp the entirety as told by unnamed sources involved with Anthem. Claiming that an overhaul of content is planned for Anthem: some suggesting this to be “Anthem 2.0” or “Anthem Next”.

We spent a few months just tearing it down and figuring out what needed to change fundamentally (a lot). And we’ve been rebuilding for another few months since.

Despite this potential turnaround for the 9 month-old title, Schreier then shares that BioWare still is negotiating how the supposed reconditioning for Anthem will actually play out when it is prepared to drop for the game. One concern being that if the developer should release this new initiative as one whole package or rather through smaller pieces at different times. Focusing on the biggest problems with Anthem, the developer does acknowledge the transparent issues and shares that how we view the game will be different, but even the studio is unsure how that will look either.

Predominantly, the mission system, looting, and overall world is subjected to be what brought Anthem to this position in the first place. So these portions of the game is said to be the main focus for the push to revamp BioWare’s title. Elsewhere, it is said that the team has contemplated releasing Next as a separate game entirely, but did reassure that it would not be priced the same as the initial game.

Furthermore, it is said that both teams in Austin, Texas and Edmonton, Canada have actually been working on the revamp project under wraps for quite some time already. As for how this initiative should be structured to release, I would suggest that BioWare looks to the standing fanbase on how it should be distributed seeing that user input does open more trust between the consumer and the developer. Already seen with how it was dealt for both No Man’s Sky and Destiny 2’s restructuring previously, we do know either way works, but it would seem like a fair choice to allow the players to dictate where Anthem heads next.

You can read Rectify gaming’s review for Anthem by heading here.

Anthem is out now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Source: Kotaku