Championship or bust is never a way that leads to prolonged success, only stress. Developers at BioWare are finding out that this is precisely the state of things in regards to their standing with EA and just how much is riding on their upcoming shared-world shooter, Anthem according to a report from Kotaku. After debuting at E3 2017, some pretty heavy expectations were laid down on the game from EA’s Executive Vice President when he called it “the start of a ten-year journey.”
A big reason why BioWare is under the microscope has a lot to do with the unexpected and very public failure of Mass Effect: Andromeda. Anthem, according to the report, is now due to release in Early 2019 after initially targeting a late 2018 release date. One developer within BioWare felt that 2018 was “never realistic,” but EA doesn’t appear likely to allow the studio to release the game after March 2019, since that is the end of their fiscal year.
That said, all is not doom and gloom. As a few developers told Kotaku, there is a legitimate sense of optimism that the game will turn out well, despite the pressure and time crunch. Both of BioWare’s studios in Edmonton and Austin are almost entirely devoted to Anthem, outside of a few developers patching their MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic and working on the initial stages of the next Dragon Age game.
History has not been entirely kind to the persistent online shared world shooter space, as both Destiny games and Tom Clancy’s The Division have endured their share of struggles, particularly at launch. Common sense would seem to dictate that time would be the best thing for Anthem, to ensure that as few things go wrong with the game as humanly possible.
But BioWare chose to share their bed with EA, and while there are some unquestioned financial perks, the pressure to get it right on their terms is just part of the deal. Let’s just hope for the best with Anthem.
