Anthem: Bioware's next Mass Effect-like IP

[stellvia]

From when was that footage you're referring to taken though? Things change, get removed, updated, tweaked, etc... in development all the time, hence the ever present qualifier "this is not a finished product and things are subject to change."
I don't feel like they (ANY developer) have to let us know every tiny detail that gets changed while the game is still in development, that would be a ludicrous amount of completely non-value added work on the parts of the development team.

The marketing video touting their "real-time dynamic storytelling" or whatever was from OCTOBER 2018. Clearly well after they damn well knew the choices were limp and meaningless. Real-time storytelling my ass. Some of this stuff is almost as bad as Sean Murray wiggle-wording through his teeth about No Man Sky having multiplayer mere days before it came out.

And if they were being so transparent, why didn't they drop a tweet or talk about in one of their developer videos how things had changed, Striders wouldn't be used as a FOB anymore, etc. They could have, but they didn't. Because they want all the good optics of being "transparent" without actually talking about anything that might have bad optics... which is the other half of being transparent.

[Gaidax]

It's not a scam, it's just a shoddy work given time, budget and hype.

I think they can set it straight, but it will take a good year for that.

[quras]

From when was that footage you're referring to taken though? Things change, get removed, updated, tweaked, etc... in development all the time, hence the ever present qualifier "this is not a finished product and things are subject to change."

I don't feel like they (ANY developer) have to let us know every tiny detail that gets changed while the game is still in development, that would be a ludicrous amount of completely non-value added work on the parts of the development team.

Calling it a scam when a finished game has some things different than the same game while it is in development seems like an extreme exaggeration just for the sake of being inflammatory towards the game.

As one poster said on this:
".... I think people are more than willing to accept changes as the game development advances, but I'm afraid what the game has seen ultimately was pretty much exclusively downgrades: smaller world, worse graphics, worse inventory, less immersion, more simplistic narratives, etc.

I'm sure people would have been fine with losing some and gaining some, but I don't think we can say that's the case. And after being at the receiving end of this very similar thing for a few year now (Watch Dogs, Destiny, No Man's Sky, The Division, Fallout76, etc.), you honestly kind of get tired of making excuses. It just so dangerously borderlines false advertising at this point...... "

And when we were shown that in game footage it wasn't presented as this is not the final product and things change. It was announced as actual in game footage. Actually in game and we were presented with a number of things that were not there. Hiding behind the BS statement of things changes has long been BS given how gamers have been shown one thing and sold another. It's gotten even worse recently.

We are also not talking about tiny details here. These are some major ones that make the world feel very different.
Their so called transparency should also be telling us what they did remove when it comes to how drastic things were downgraded in anthem.

A few talking points I ran across:

We know that for the E3 2017 trailer it was filled with misleading footage and false claims. A year and a half before the game launched.
We know that at the E3 2018 trailer was a similar showing. Compounding the false claims of what gamers would get. That was 8 months before release.
Then we get the Our World. My Story Trailer. Again with the lies and false claims just 5 months before release.

bioware knew exactly what they were doing. They over sold the game on features, visuals and functions that would not be there at launch and at 5 months to release they cannot hide behind the claim that., "Oh things change". They showed a superior version of the game that was never going to be sold to the public but let those lies stay in the marketing table so it could be shown and sold on those lies.

I know many may not want to watch this video as it seems so many are against this guy but his point is solid on this very matter when we talk of what we got vs what got downgraded. You can easily see the difference in a few minor things getting changed vs what bioware did here. It's very much a scam in my eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXpEjYZ54IQ

[Katchii]

The marketing video touting their "real-time dynamic storytelling" or whatever was from OCTOBER 2018. Clearly well after they damn well knew the choices were limp and meaningless. Real-time storytelling my ass. Some of this stuff is almost as bad as Sean Murray wiggle-wording through his teeth about No Man Sky having multiplayer mere days before it came out.

And if they were being so transparent, why didn't they drop a tweet or talk about in one of their developer videos how things had changed, Striders wouldn't be used as a FOB anymore, etc. They could have, but they didn't. Because they want all the good optics of being "transparent" without actually talking about anything that might have bad optics... which is the other half of being transparent.

Yeah agreed on the story telling part. I don't mind the story in Anthem, it's not terrible, but the huge difference between Fort Tarsis and when you're out in the wild is really jarring. It's not really real-time.

As one poster said on this:
".... I think people are more than willing to accept changes as the game development advances, but I'm afraid what the game has seen ultimately was pretty much exclusively downgrades: smaller world, worse graphics, worse inventory, less immersion, more simplistic narratives, etc.

I'm sure people would have been fine with losing some and gaining some, but I don't think we can say that's the case. And after being at the receiving end of this very similar thing for a few year now (Watch Dogs, Destiny, No Man's Sky, The Division, Fallout76, etc.), you honestly kind of get tired of making excuses. It just so dangerously borderlines false advertising at this point...... "

And when we were shown that in game footage it wasn't presented as this is not the final product and things change. It was announced as actual in game footage. Actually in game and we were presented will a number of things that were not there. Hiding behind the BS statement of things changes has long been BS given how gamers have been shown one thing and sold another. It's gotten even worse recently.

We are also not talking about tiny details here. These are some major ones that make the world feel very different.

A few talking points I ran across:

We know that for the E3 2017 trailer it was filled with misleading footage and false claims. A year and a half before the gme launched.
We know that at the E3 2018 trailer was a similar showing. Compounding the false claims of what gamers would get. That was 8 months before release.
Then we get the Our World. My Story Trailer. Again with the lies and false claims just 5 months before release.

bioware knew exactly what they were doing. They over sold the game on features, visuals and functions that would not be there and launch and 5 months to release they cannot hide behind the claim that., "Oh things change". They showed a superior version of the game that was never going to be sold to the public but let those lies stay in the marketing.

I know many may not want to watch this video as it seems so many are against this guy but his point is solid on this very matter when we talk of what we got vs what got downgraded. You can easily see the difference in a few minor things getting changed vs what bioware did here. It's very much a scam in my eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXpEjYZ54IQ

I honestly didn't keep close tabs on the game up until a few weeks before launch. That's why I asked about the footage and when it was from. I was honestly working from an assumption that what transpired with Anthem was similar in scope to what I've seen dozens of other times in other games. I was wrong.

I can't argue against the crap that happened with Anthem though, based on the sheer amount of downgrades and things that simply don't align with what we got in the finished product, the word "scam" feels appropriate. Wow.....

[quras]

Yeah agreed on the story telling part. I don't mind the story in Anthem, it's not terrible, but the huge difference between Fort Tarsis and when you're out in the wild is really jarring. It's not really real-time.



I honestly didn't keep close tabs on the game up until a few weeks before launch. That's why I asked about the footage and when it was from. I was honestly working from an assumption that what transpired with Anthem was similar in scope to what I've seen dozens of other times in other games. I was wrong.

I can't argue against the crap that happened with Anthem though, based on the sheer amount of downgrades and things that simply don't align with what we got in the finished product, the word "scam" feels appropriate. Wow.....

I've had as eye on anthem for a while as I had hoped it would be my next big game move from swtor given the state of things there but I didn't watch it as close as others.

To see it all compiled as it has been in many areas like this it's very eye opening to just how bad bioware did things with anthem combined with how poorly the games launch state was and in many cases currently are.

It's a shame really but one that cannot be so easily forgiven for what bioware (and lets throw ea in there too) did here. It's just one of the reasons I've learned to be OK with a large bit of the negativity and asshole'ery comments that has hit bioware and continue to pile on them.

[chazus]

I honestly didn't keep close tabs on the game up until a few weeks before launch. That's why I asked about the footage and when it was from. I was honestly working from an assumption that what transpired with Anthem was similar in scope to what I've seen dozens of other times in other games. I was wrong.

I can't argue against the crap that happened with Anthem though, based on the sheer amount of downgrades and things that simply don't align with what we got in the finished product, the word "scam" feels appropriate. Wow.....

Eh, I'm still having fun with the game. I was hoping it would be my next big time sink, and I don't know if it's that. But me and my friends also didn't plow through to max level in the first week. It has issues, yeah, but I'm still having fun with it.

[Katchii]

Eh, I'm still having fun with the game. I was hoping it would be my next big time sink, and I don't know if it's that. But me and my friends also didn't plow through to max level in the first week. It has issues, yeah, but I'm still having fun with it.

For sure, I'm still enjoying myself with it too. Never meant to imply otherwise, just saying that the people mad at the game and at BioWare/EA have some really good points.

[chazus]

For sure, I'm still enjoying myself with it too. Never meant to imply otherwise, just saying that the people mad at the game and at BioWare/EA have some really good points.

I don't disagree, and sometimes I feel like if I didn't read this forum, and the reddit, I'd be... happier? Ignorance is bliss? I started looking into the numbers, and the whole "million damage ranger" thing and tested it myself and just sorta... wish I hadn't, and just kept playing as if my playstyle mattered.

But I've also tempered myself to expect stuff like this. But at the same time, I also recognize that "expecting stupid shit" is also not acceptable, technically, either.

[kaelleria]

Apparently the Monument is doing something funky.

[Eleccybubb]

Welp nearly a month in and the state of this game well.

Majority of players have left, stupid changes made to the game, Bioware giving the usual "we hear you but please wait for the game to be fixed even though it should have been at launch" crap, people actively protesting because of changes made to the loot system, loads of bugs such as PS4/Pro having rendering issues and loads more.

If they can salvage this mess I'll be amazed. Because I honestly don't think they can and the April content update won't help it at all.

[kaid]

Welp nearly a month in and the state of this game well.

Majority of players have left, stupid changes made to the game, Bioware giving the usual "we hear you but please wait for the game to be fixed even though it should have been at launch" crap, people actively protesting because of changes made to the loot system, loads of bugs such as PS4/Pro having rendering issues and loads more.

If they can salvage this mess I'll be amazed. Because I honestly don't think they can and the April content update won't help it at all.

I think a lot of players are just waiting for the content drops to happen. Honestly it can't be hurting their micro transactions funding because they frankly have nothing yet to really buy anyway. I have been playing division 2 because I wanted to try that but the core gamplay of anthem is a lot more fun to me than a more old school sticky cover shooter. If anthem can flesh itself out I think it could be a really good game but I think they launched it a few months too soon.

[Faldric]

http://blog.bioware.com/2019/03/19/a...launch-update/
Post launch update..

Not really anything new, but communication is good.

Wow. Can they please stop with the lies. Yes, you knew the state of your game. Yes, you knew the game was a huge step back from what was shown beforehand but lied about it anyways. Stop pretending like this was unavoidable and just happened because of bad luck. This is a multi million dollar industry. It's not like from one day to the next somebody just comes into the office and shouts "IT COMPILES, LETS SHIP IT!!"

[Eleccybubb]

Wow. Can they please stop with the lies. Yes, you knew the state of your game. Yes, you knew the game was a huge step back from what was shown beforehand but lied about it anyways. Stop pretending like this was unavoidable and just happened because of bad luck. This is a multi million dollar industry. It's not like from one day to the next somebody just comes into the office and shouts "IT COMPILES, LETS SHIP IT!!"

Even I cringed reading that "update".

But then as I think back we also knew that big new online games tend to hit some kind of problem once they go live, so as much as we tested and prepared to make sure everything was ready,

HAHAHA. Sure you did.

We launched a game that so many of you tell us is really fun at its core, but we also had a degree of issues that did not reveal themselves until we were operating at the scale of millions of players.

So basically you are that incompetent you can't work out issues with your own products and rely on people with no experience in the industry to tell you? Good to know.

As we move through this most difficult period of launching a new game and IP, we are also working on the things that will really show what Anthem is capable of – a series of world events, new story content, and new features, that all build towards the Cataclysm later this spring.

People ain't coming back for some mediocre world events, some story that already barely has any depth to it and other stuff.

[Gaidax]

Ehh I think you are being a bit too tough there.

I certainly ain't Anthem lover at this point, but I think it's fine message. Yeah of course it went through PR and all, but at least it's not completely full of shit, as in not some fairy tale message of everything being amazing and everyone being happy forging forward.

I hope Anthem manages to pull through before EA puts an axe to it, because at its core it has some solid gameplay, it's just everything around that gameplay is shit both on content and technical level.

Not sure technical level can be improved to match something like TD2, but content sure can.

[Baconeggcheese]

Eh, I'm still having fun with the game. I was hoping it would be my next big time sink, and I don't know if it's that. But me and my friends also didn't plow through to max level in the first week. It has issues, yeah, but I'm still having fun with it.

Yeah I don't think if I was just working part time having full 12+ hour days of game time that this game would be that game for me. There's not enough meat to invest into right now, but for someone who wants to drop a few hours each night I think its grand. Still having lots of fun.

[kaelleria]

For those of you hoping it would fail horribly...
It didn't.
https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/19/f...oftware-sales/

Highest selling game in February. Second highest selling game of the year. Bioware's second highest selling title ever.

Oh and that's not counting digital sales or Origin subscriptions.

This game isn't getting abandoned.

[Edge-]

For those of you hoping it would fail horribly...
It didn't.
https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/19/f...oftware-sales/

Highest selling game in February. Second highest selling game of the year. Bioware's second highest selling title ever.

Oh and that's not counting digital sales or Origin subscriptions.

This game isn't getting abandoned.

PC digital sales*. It does include digital sales on console, and the revenue from Origin subs likely won't be realized as Anthem revenue but as general "services" revenue for EA (for financial reporting).

I didn't realize that DA:I sold worse (at least initially) than ME3, I'd have thought it'd sell more. But that's good for them that they've at least got a strong initial playerbase and some solid up-front revenue to help offset the current rough patch and give them some space to work/improve things.

[Gaidax]

For those of you hoping it would fail horribly...
It didn't.
https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/19/f...oftware-sales/

Highest selling game in February. Second highest selling game of the year. Bioware's second highest selling title ever.

Oh and that's not counting digital sales or Origin subscriptions.

This game isn't getting abandoned.

You remind me of Ministabber...

At any rate, the game is ailing now and one better hope it's just some growing pains and not a fatal disease.

- - - Updated - - -

PC digital sales*. It does include digital sales on console, and the revenue from Origin subs likely won't be realized as Anthem revenue but as general "services" revenue for EA (for financial reporting).

I didn't realize that DA:I sold worse (at least initially) than ME3, I'd have thought it'd sell more. But that's good for them that they've at least got a strong initial playerbase and some solid up-front revenue to help offset the current rough patch and give them some space to work/improve things.

ME3 was THE game. Final game of trilogy where everything people worked for gets resolved. I'd be surprised if that the other way.

[Video Games]

For those of you hoping it would fail horribly...
It didn't.
https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/19/f...oftware-sales/

Highest selling game in February. Second highest selling game of the year. Bioware's second highest selling title ever.

Oh and that's not counting digital sales or Origin subscriptions.

This game isn't getting abandoned.

So me3 first month sales were 1.3m, this sold less and completely fell off the uk charts this week and they were hoping for 5-6m. Mama-mia

[Eleccybubb]

So me3 first month sales were 1.3m, this sold less and completely fell off the uk charts this week and they were hoping for 5-6m. Mama-mia

So at most this sold 1-1.2 million units.

The better question is how many are still playing after the first month? I don't believe for one second it's more than half.