Anthem has failed to capture its audience after a middling reception and general failure to keep its live-service model in shape. This has culminated in severe community backlash and several veterans of the studio abandoning the project. Leaving the game in a mostly dejected and forgotten state as player numbers dwindle.
Despite this, the team at Bioware hasn’t quit on the game yet. Even though a majority of the original devs have left for neighboring studios, the return of Casey Hudson in 2018 as the games manager was seen as a major boon for its future.
Casey would go on to pen the blog update describing an overhaul-like update for Anthem that would completely change its design.
“Over the last year. the team has worked hard to improve stability, performance and general quality of life while delivering three seasons of new content and features. We have also heard your feedback that Anthem needs a more satisfying loot experience, better long-term progression and a more fulfilling end game. So we recognize that there’s still more fundamental work to be done to bring out the full potential of the experience, and it will require a more substantial reinvention than an update or expansion.
Over the coming months we will be focusing on a longer-term redesign of the experience, specifically working to reinvent the core gameplay loop with clear goals, motivating challenges and progression with meaningful rewards — while preserving the fun of flying and fighting in a vast science-fantasy setting. And to do that properly we’ll be doing something we’d like to have done more of the first time around —giving a focused team the time to test and iterate, focusing on gameplay first.”
In short, this can be summed up as a change in Anthem’s core gameplay and appeal. Not just an update with buffs and nerfs but a fundamental rework of the games central game design philosophy in hopes of reinvigorating it.
While many are dubious as one of Anthem’s major failures can be considered their inability to follow their roadmap (logging into the game now, one can still see hanging Christmas lights), some are hoping this update can follow the route of No Mans Sky and FFXIV: A Realm Reborn. Earning back its reputation and hopefully its fans.
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The original post can be found here though (ironically enough) many find that the blog itself to be broken and inaccessible at the moment.
