Apparent as it may be to its problems, Anthem is said to expect a complete overhaul to its foundation of the entire experience by the coming times. As many are aware, the game when shipping in 2019 did not meet anywhere near where developer BioWare promised with a plethora of bugs and other game-breaking issues littered on the surface. But, the team remained ambitious to undo the damage it inflicted upon its current release.
However, it was later shared that the new ‘Anthem Next’ initiative would require more time to meet its completion and ultimately is “a longer process” than the studio expected to face initially. And for a bit, it was presumed progress was making its rounds for Anthem as BioWare shared an update on the project later on.
Aside from the prevalent problems in Anthem, BioWare also teased the new UI system that will be utilized in Anthem Next leading forward. Except now, the initiative altogether is now being put to the curb. In a new blog post from BioWare, the project is being completely dropped in favor for the approaching Mass Effect & Dragon Age titles.
In the spirit of transparency and closure we wanted to share that we’ve made the difficult decision to stop our new development work on Anthem (aka Anthem NEXT). We will, however, continue to keep the Anthem live service running as it exists today. […] Game development is hard. Decisions like these are not easy. Moving forward, we need to laser focus our efforts as a studio and strengthen the next Dragon Age, and Mass Effect titles while continuing to provide quality updates to Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Christian Dailey, BioWare Austin Studio Director
As per Bloomberg Tech’s Jason Schreier, he indicated a decision on the game would be announced earlier in February. However, BioWare did not comment on the project’s status until Wednesday this week. Schreier also comments that the initiative began as early as 2019 upon receiving of a tip prior to the BioWare blog post.
“I know this will be disappointing to the community of Anthem players who have been excited to see the improvements we’ve been working on. It’s also disappointing for the team who were doing brilliant work. And for me personally, Anthem is what brought me to BioWare, and the last two years have been some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my career.”
Are you surprised BioWare pulled the entire operation for Anthem Next?
Anthem is out now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
Source: BioWare
