How BioWare's Anthem Went Wrong (?)

ekske1

ekske1

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The very long and original article:
https://kotaku.com/how-biowares-anthem-went-wrong-1833731964
It wasn’t even supposed to be called Anthem. Just days before the annual E3 convention in June of 2017, when the storied studio BioWare would reveal its newest game, the plan had been to go with a different title: Beyond. They’d even printed out Beyond T-shirts for the staff.

Then, less than a week before the Los Angeles press conference held by BioWare’s parent company, Electronic Arts, word came down that securing the rights to the trademark would be too difficult. Beyond was ruled out. The leadership team quickly switched to one of their backup options, Anthem. But whereas Beyond had been indicative of what BioWare hoped the game would be—you’d go out beyond the walls of your fort and into the dangerous wilds around you—Anthem didn’t really mean much.



“Everybody was like, ‘Well, that doesn’t make any sense—what does this have to do with anything?’” said one person who worked on the game. Just days before their game’s announcement, the team at BioWare had a brand new name that nobody really understood.

Such a major last-minute upheaval might seem strange to an outside observer, but on Anthem, it was common. Very few things went right in the development of BioWare’s latest game, an online cooperative shooter that was first teased in mid-2012 but spent years floundering in pre-prod..

https://kotaku.com/how-biowares-anthem-went-wrong-1833731964
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Visual, but dramatized versions:
Anthem: Finally EXPOSED! + Bioware's Response!
EA & Bioware EXPOSED By Kotaku On Anthem & They Are ANGRY!
Anthem Investigation Exposes Troubled Development & Leadership Failures
< jimpression pending, just for Fulcrum >

Of course here is an I called it™
https://g33kp0rn.wordpress.com/2019/04/03/damning-article-depicts-bioware-and-anthem-in-shambles/

Honorable thread mention
https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/anthem-angry-review-extended-discussion.1009962/

And finally Bellular (my preference, but I did listen to some of the others)
The Disastrous Development Of Anthem Revealed | How BioWare Burned Staff & Wasted Years
BioWare Are DELUDED | Studio Cowardly Strikes Back Against The Press, Ignoring Criticism

All of that... I suppose I am glad that I only subbed for one month of 'origin access premier' and at least played BF5 and SW:BF2 alongside Anthem. Not a total loss, but still its R200 less :ROFL:
 
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Brenden_E said:
People paid R1000 for this game. Rest in pepperonis!
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This is the thing. Back when PC games cost R300 brand new and a console game a bit more you didn't mind as much if the game bombed. Now that games on all platforms cost a grand on release it's ridiculous.
The exchange rate has dropped and yet the new release price has remained the same no matter what. This is why I tend to only play older games on both platforms as being out a grand for a new release is just ridiculous.
 
They went wrong when they decided to make yet another boring looter shooter

Looter shooters are becoming as appealing as yet another Battle royal game.
 
Not been the same developer for a very long time...So this is no surprise.The Bioware Magic disappeared the day they became part of EA...
 
Beyond.Celsus said:
They went wrong when they decided to make yet another boring looter shooter

Looter shooters are becoming as appealing as yet another Battle royal game.
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Nothing wrong with looter shooters or BRs, they went wrong cause of horrible management, as per the 11000 word article...
 
prOd said:
Nothing wrong with looter shooters or BRs, they went wrong cause of horrible management, as per the 11000 word article...
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The developers of Dragon Age and Mass Effect have no business making a looter shooter.
They should stick to what they are good at.

Something EA will never understand.
 
ekske1 said:
Like creative assembly should not have done alien isolation?
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They branched out and made a good game.


Bioware brached out and failed.

Proof enough they should stick to what they are good at.
 
Beyond.Celsus said:
They branched out and made a good game.


Bioware brached out and failed.

Proof enough they should stick to what they are good at.
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That's got nothing to do with 'sticking to what you're good at' and everything to do with management. Why was Mass Effect Andromeda such a big flop, surely they stuck to what they were good at?

Ironically Blizzard made a crazy successful Shooter game while being known for MMORPG and RTS, once again, bad management ruined this game.
 
prOd said:
That's got nothing to do with 'sticking to what you're good at' and everything to do with management. Why was Mass Effect Andromeda such a big flop, surely they stuck to what they were good at?

Ironically Blizzard made a crazy successful Shooter game while being known for MMORPG and RTS, once again, bad management ruined this game.
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I can agree with that

EA is the villain of the piece.


Wish people would stop supporting them.....
 
stefan9 said:
Not been the same developer for a very long time...So this is no surprise.The Bioware Magic disappeared the day they became part of EA...
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I disagree. Mass Effect 2 and 3 (bar the ending) were both fantastic.

Their magic disappeared this console generation with disasters like Andromeda, and yeah the EA greed was a major influence on this...
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
I disagree. Mass Effect 2 and 3 (bar the ending) were both fantastic.

Their magic disappeared this console generation with disasters like Andromeda, and yeah the EA greed was a major influence on this...
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The EA thing seems to be slow poison, initially studios will retain their drive and identity but over time the EA culture creeps in and screws everything up.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
I disagree. Mass Effect 2 and 3 (bar the ending) were both fantastic.

Their magic disappeared this console generation with disasters like Andromeda, and yeah the EA greed was a major influence on this...
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Debatable. Depends what you were looking for. Both good games but don't hold up to the classic Bioware rpg's. Last true BioWare rpg before the EA influence was Dragon Age Origins.
 
stefan9 said:
Debatable. Depends what you were looking for. Both good games but don't hold up to the classic Bioware rpg's. Last true BioWare rpg before the EA influence was Dragon Age Origins.
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Played DA: Origins, DA: Awakening and ME1.

I think they got it just right with ME2 and ME3...
 
Beyond is a stupid name. There's already over a dozen Beyond games already. If they wanted to use Beyond they should have at least fused it with something else.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
I disagree. Mass Effect 2 and 3 (bar the ending) were both fantastic.

Their magic disappeared this console generation with disasters like Andromeda, and yeah the EA greed was a major influence on this...
Click to expand...

Did you play Andromeda or are you relying on word of mouth? I picked it up in December for next to nothing and was pleasantly surprised, it was probably closer to ME1 then the later 2 but it wasn't that bad. I don't get the whole SJW arguments people had.
There were some annoying things, you fought the same things over and over, even in higher levels you were still fighting the same foot soldiers and such. The story wasn't that bad, Ryder felt more like a guy who had to try figure out his way in a new galaxy and wasn't sure, compared to Shepard who was always a bit cocksure.
 
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