It’s hard to believe that Anthem, EA’s take on a live service looter-shooter akin to Destiny or The Division, launched only three months ago. What was initially supposed to be a sprawling BioWare epic set in a hostile alien world ended up being a shallow, aimless experience that didn’t really know what it wanted to be. While the game received patch after patch in the weeks following its release, BioWare decided to slow things down a bit late last month and delay a lot of their major upcoming features to iron out the problems at Anthem‘s core. Then the devs stopped being as active on the game’s subreddit. Then the official Twitter account stopped tweeting. And then, silence.
The last thing the Anthem Twitter account tweeted about was the developer livestream on April 23, the same stream where they announced the delays. The game did receive some quality of life improvements as well as a brand new stronghold with that update, but fans were okay with getting a fraction of the promised features because they expected more to come in the following months. Being a live service game, Anthem has a roadmap, and on that roadmap are a number of features planned for the month of May, the most notable of which being the “Cataclysm”, a huge event that would change the game world and provide players with a wide array of new experiences and rewards. Planned alongside this event were new missions, new freeplay events, and new cosmetic items, so fans had a lot to look forward to during the month of May.
Following the delays, players of Anthem were expecting April’s content (mastery system, guilds, more legendary missions, a weekly stronghold challenge, and leaderboards) to come either before or alongside May’s content. Also, instead of launching the Cataclysm in May, Bioware would share more details about the event that month instead. As of right now, there are only a few days left in May, and Bioware hasn’t released a patch or even updated its dwindling playerbase on what’s going on. The game’s roadmap still hasn’t reflected the recent changes in Anthem‘s development schedule, still boasting “Cataclysm starts!” as the highlight for this month.
The game’s subreddit has been filled with posts from unhappy players who just want to know what’s going on. Fans are clamoring for information to such an extent that they got excited over a tweet from EA Access about an in-game cosmetic item. There was a bit of a breakthrough, however, as one user managed to get EA support to tell them that information about the Cataclysm will be provided at EA Play next week. This still doesn’t bode well for the state of Anthem though, as this event was supposed to launch earlier this month and they’re just barely sharing details at the beginning of June. Not only that, but they’re behind on over a month of content updates and they still have to make June’s content on top of that. Anthem is in a tough spot right now, and it needs a huge update to rejuvenate its shrinking playerbase.
Even if Anthem receives a huge content update following EA Play, it still wouldn’t solve Anthem‘s greatest problem, and that is the lack of true communication between the developers and the players. Players ask for changes, and BioWare says they’re listening but make changes that anger most of the players. Then BioWare won’t tell players what’s happening at the studio or why they make certain choices, and all this is on top of a glacial pace for updates. It’s a cruel cycle, and it’s one that BioWare is going to have to break if they want to have any hope of saving Anthem. Unlike flops like Rainbow Six Siege that launched in a poor state and managed to turn themselves around, Anthem is sorely lacking the improvements and updates that are needed to turn a game like this into a great one.
BioWare needs to show improvement at EA Play, not just on the game’s part, but on their part as well. They have to show that they’re willing to listen to feedback and act on it. They need to get content out. Anthem has a decent foundation, they just need to build upon it, especially after going MIA for a month. Live service games like these live and die by their updates, and it’s abundantly clear which direction Anthem is heading.
EA Play begins on Saturday, June 8 and will feature announcements and reveals for a variety of EA titles, Anthem included.
