Anthem: Bioware's next Mass Effect-like IP

[Dorfadin]

Big patch but unless I am missing something, no new content, just fixes.

[Gaidax]

Does anyone actually believe that Anthem can turn around after this article?

I think it can, but they sure blew it with all that crap. Even if half of what Kotaku wrote is true, it's already pretty bad.

Austin will need to do some epic stunts to pull this game up by its ears.

[kaelleria]

Big patch but unless I am missing something, no new content, just fixes.

Before the weekend hits I wanted to give a quick update to the #AnthemGame community. The team is still working on the next big update, including new content that we announced on the roadmap.
1/4
We’re also working on a smaller update to fix some recent issues including:
1. Elysian Caches not showing the rewards you got right away.
2. Loot dropping for javelins that you aren’t currently using.
3. The newsfeed not showing up properly.
2/4
I'm also working on the next livestream, which may be delayed a bit off the two week cadence we've been going with. I really want to show everyone the new content we're working on, but I also want to make sure it's ready to present ������
3/4
Lastly, we're still working to address a lot of the reports we've been getting on players not being able to complete challenges, missing percentages on items (visual bug) and more. Stay tuned for more updates next week!
4/4

Just bugfixes today.

[chazus]

It's a Third Person Destiny with uninspired enemies (and AI) and overall mediocre weapon selection with Typical but Albeit sometimes Fun/Flashy abilities.

And yet, I'm still playing Anthem, and not playing Destiny.

[rhorle]

EA's interference basically boils down to them pushing Frostbyte, taking programmers for FIFA (but giving extra staff from other studios) and not letting them extend into another year for development. Oh, and telling them the game was crap without flying.

Thank god that EA "forced" them to add flying. That really is one of the things that is good for Anthem. I don't see how the game would have done better then now with out it.

- - - Updated - - -

Does anyone actually believe that Anthem can turn around after this article?

If they EA wants to still support it then yes. If an indie studio like Hello Games can turn around a game like NMS then so can Bioware with help from EA and everyone else they can get help from.

[Baconeggcheese]

Thank god that EA "forced" them to add flying. That really is one of the things that is good for Anthem. I don't see how the game would have done better then now with out it.

Well, it would make a massive difference for development time on the world n mechanics. Which could have been used for other things, but who knows if it would have been better or not. It definitely would have been more samey.

[Edge-]

Man, all the issues raised the article aside, the Reddit is some wholesome shit right now. No, not the complaints about the loot or the people rightfully dragging BW for their terrible "response" or discussing the development issues. Not them.

But I'm seeing thread after thread after thread created by folks thanking the on-the-ground developers for their efforts. Folks rallying around them and making it clear that nobody is really mad at them, but rather at those making the decisions. I really, really hope that BW staff are seeing the posts and know that the community is there to support them and that none of the frustrations are aimed at them specifically.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnthemTheGa...w_im_so_sorry/

Shit like this. I'm normally pretty disappointed with my fellow internet gaming brethren, but this is a moment where I'm pretty proud of us.

[kaelleria]

Man, all the issues raised the article aside, the Reddit is some wholesome shit right now. No, not the complaints about the loot or the people rightfully dragging BW for their terrible "response" or discussing the development issues. Not them.

But I'm seeing thread after thread after thread created by folks thanking the on-the-ground developers for their efforts. Folks rallying around them and making it clear that nobody is really mad at them, but rather at those making the decisions. I really, really hope that BW staff are seeing the posts and know that the community is there to support them and that none of the frustrations are aimed at them specifically.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnthemTheGa...w_im_so_sorry/

Shit like this. I'm normally pretty disappointed with my fellow internet gaming brethren, but this is a moment where I'm pretty proud of us.

This totally makes up for the death threats and vitriol the devs, content creators, and subreddit moderators have received! /s

Sorry, but someone telling me that I should feel awful and that they're going to murder my family because of a game isn't erased by r/ATG not being complete idiots for an afternoon.

[Baconeggcheese]

Man, all the issues raised the article aside, the Reddit is some wholesome shit right now. No, not the complaints about the loot or the people rightfully dragging BW for their terrible "response" or discussing the development issues. Not them.

But I'm seeing thread after thread after thread created by folks thanking the on-the-ground developers for their efforts. Folks rallying around them and making it clear that nobody is really mad at them, but rather at those making the decisions. I really, really hope that BW staff are seeing the posts and know that the community is there to support them and that none of the frustrations are aimed at them specifically.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnthemTheGa...w_im_so_sorry/

Shit like this. I'm normally pretty disappointed with my fellow internet gaming brethren, but this is a moment where I'm pretty proud of us.

Or like this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnthemTheGa...ving_hints_we/

[Val the Moofia Boss]

That's not fraud. That's the realities of game and software development as a whole.

Technically no, ethically it is fraud. The industry should've adopted the tried-and-true policy of not announcing games that are in the middle of a development cycle that may or may not finish and wait until it is in the final steps of QA and post-production to announce it. That way, audiences won't become exhausted by hype trains and long waits and consumers won't be disappointed when when what they got was different from what they were originally sold.

[Baconeggcheese]

Technically no, ethically it is fraud. The industry should've adopted the tried-and-true policy of not announcing games that are in the middle of a development cycle that may or may not finish and wait until it is in the final steps of QA and post-production to announce it. That way, audiences won't become exhausted by hype trains and long waits and consumers won't be disappointed when when what they got was different from what they were originally sold.

This game didn't really have a hype train though, it had a hate train.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

This game didn't really have a hype train though, it had a hate train.

I saw consumers being cautiously optimistic (and rightfully so, given the last eight years of Bioware releases). Anticipation began to sour in the weeks approaching launch and it was increasingly obvious that the game's content was barebones. I did not see a hate train develop against Anthem itself until the game actually launched.

[kaelleria]

I saw consumers being cautiously optimistic (and rightfully so, given the last eight years of Bioware releases). Anticipation began to sour in the weeks approaching launch and it was increasingly obvious that the game's content was barebones. I did not see a hate train develop against Anthem itself until the game actually launched.

You might want to check some of the post history in this thread. There have been people bashing on the game since it was announced.

[Ophenia]

And apparently its possible for them to do something about the load screens, at least them removing the load screen for the forge is precedent for that. Imagine chipping away at other load screens is gonna take a lot more time, but seems possible to say the least.

One thing that could greatly help is replace the "[R] Forge" on the End of mission screen (now that the Forge is accessible without loading screen from everywhere) by a simple "[R] launch another mission". Would avoid the Launch Bay / Fort Tarsis loading if what you want is just chain another contract/stronghold/freeplay.

After that they should also improve the respawns on Strongholds... Not reviving in the current objective area is dumb, forcing you to go through another (short, but annoying) loading screen 5 seconds after reviving.

[Cosmic Janitor]

You might want to check some of the post history in this thread. There have been people bashing on the game since it was announced.

Everything about the game was questionable from the beginning. That is not neccessarily bashing, that is often just telling how it is. The moment they declared this would be some multiplayer game it became apparent that no matter what it would be "difficult" (understatement) to keep up their known quality in regards to story and RPG mechanics. At best we could have gotten another SW:TOR, but that became more and more unlikely with every piece of information that was released.

As for the shitaku article, well I'm not that surprised. Many people that claim connections in the industry have claimed similar things and much of it was quite apparent by the state of the game. Under the premise that Schreier actually found the whole truth here, all I can say is that I'm only quite shocked how EA/Bioware can still have the gall to release a statement where they claim to have tried to avoid crunch and that the article is mean because it targets individuals. Neither seems to be the case. You know as someone in charge these things fall upon you, that is not targeting you, that is stating the fact that you fucked up your job. You get more money than you should, at least take responsibility for your failings. The game being in preproduction that long is quite showing as well, if they truly wanted to drop the only feature that makes them stand out I just don't know. How ignorant can you be about your competion? Not wanting to learn from your competitors mistakes is one thing, but checking if your game actually brings anything new to the table should be the bare minimum when you don't want to be compared with them. Failing both of these is actually quite surprising after all.

I hope the fact that the trailer was total fabrication because they didn't even have a game at that time is enough to finally stop trusting these presentations entirely. It would be nice if at least that fact finally sunk into everyones collective conciousnes.

[Gaidax]

EA's interference basically boils down to them pushing Frostbyte, taking programmers for FIFA (but giving extra staff from other studios) and not letting them extend into another year for development. Oh, and telling them the game was crap without flying.

I must say that guy that pushed their ass to make game pretty and better was on the money there. Graphics and flight are some of the better features of Anthem for sure.

Honestly, I am not even sure if Frostbite really the issue there, much larger issues seems to me by the article that they have wasted insane amount of time being indecisive as fuck. Frostbite would not be an issue if they would get off their asses and entered production like year faster.

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe they actually work best when someone is sitting on their ass with a whip from EA, if that article is true. They really needed this “wtf is this shit” back in 2014-5, not 2017.

[szechuan]

I must say that guy that pushed their ass to make game pretty and better was on the money there. Graphics and flight are some of the better features of Anthem for sure.

They weren't even sure if that was something they wanted until the CEO of EA was more impressed with the game having Flight.

Honestly, I am not even sure if Frostbite really the issue there, much larger issues seems to me by the article that they have wasted insane amount of time being indecisive as fuck. Frostbite would not be an issue if they would get off their asses and entered production like year faster.

They had 7 years, if they worked on a Focused Vision game for about 3-4 years they could of easily polished and possibly created an amazing game.

I do agree with people that it is quite impressive they were able to churn out Anthem in about a year to a year and a half but it still does not excuse all the issues and potential lies from Anthem.

[americandavey]

I know people want to give EA most of the blame. This is just another case of poor management in Bioware. People that have no business in leading others or leading game development because of they have Friends in the right places. Six years of having no clear direction. people that was working of the game telling management about issues that was apparent and ignore because of elitist attitude that other studios wasn't "pure" Bioware. Story being rewritten more than five times, no wonder they didnt have a single mission in the game less than six months before launch. The way employees in the article state that a single Executive Producer that came in less than a year before launch got more things done than the first five years.

This is long history of Bioware with people in leadership/decision making positions that shouldn't be in those roles. TOR and ME:A had that same problem.

[Gaidax]

I know people want to give EA most of the blame.

I am no EA lover, but to me the article sounds like EA saved Anthem. If anything EA should have stepped in earlier, instead they gave them all the time in the world and they ended up with not knowing wtf to do until that EA bigshot started shouting “wtf am I paying you fools for?”. It was like 4 years in at that point and BW still had no clue what genre the game even was, aside from having robots and guns, that’s crazy.

I guess the repercussions/lessons learned of this for EA will be that they can’t just let studios do whatever for years expecting them to come through. I don’t know if it means good things or bad things, but maybe they do indeed need to tighten their grip a bit to avoid yet another disaster like that.

I know people here would hate EA to interfere, but this case really shows how someone should have rolled into BW a fair bit earlier and started dispensing order. Maybe you would not have people have psychological breakdowns last year and a half that way.

[LazarusLong]

Given that BW Austin is working on it, yes. I won't be easy or fast, but if they have control and BW leadership finally has a vision for the game they can eventually whip it into shape.

But wouldn't it require even more crunch, more stressed out devs? Can they fix the game while also fixing the culture in the company? Is it even worth it?