BioWare ‘100% committed to Anthem’

BioWare has said it remains “100% committed” to its service game shooter Anthem, following the delay of major features and claims of “a studio in crisis”.

A Kotaku report in April claimed that Anthem, which was poorly received by most critics, didn’t enter production until the final 18 months of a protracted six-and-a-half-year development cycle.

The development process, it claimed, was severely hampered by a series of “big narrative reboots, major design overhauls, and a leadership team said to be unable to provide a consistent vision and unwilling to listen to feedback”.

Since the publication of the claims, BioWare has delayed several major Anthem features, including the first Cataclysm event, following a troubled launch involving console crashes, balance issues and more.

However, BioWare’s live service head Chad Robertson has taken to Twitter to insist the company remains committed to delivering new content to players, and that it’s “motivated for improving the game”.

He wrote: “We remain 100% committed to Anthem and look forward to showing players the new content we are working on. We want to make sure we aren’t overpromising, so our updates on what’s coming in the game will be focused when we have things near completion.

In a separate tweet, he wrote: “We’ve got a big team between Austin and Edmonton focused and motivated for improving the game. We appreciate your support and for being on this journey with us.”

Several of Anthem’s leads, including its executive producer Mark Darrah, are said to have moved over to BioWare’s next project, the long-in-development Dragon Age 4.

In early 2018, it was reported that BioWare had rebooted Dragon Age 4 and that its replacement would be a “live service” game.

Studio GM Casey Hudson responded to the report on Twitter: “Reading lots of feedback regarding Dragon Age, and I think you’ll be relieved to see what the team is working on,” he wrote.

“Story & character focused. Too early to talk details, but when we talk about ‘live’ it just means designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story.”

EA officially teased the game with a vague trailer at The Game Awards in December 2018.

In a blog post, creative director Matthew Goldman said: “We’ve gathered our strongest team yet and are venturing forth on the most epic quest ever.”