A hope for an Anthem
It hasn’t exactly been a good week for
EA.
Scratch that, it hasn’t exactly been a
good year for EA. Entering 2017 hot off the heels of the critical praise of Titanfall 2 and the commercial success
of Battlefield 1, EA seemed
determined to spend the year making every single mistake a game company
possibly could, and do it with true gusto as well. Mass Effect Andromeda turned out to be a buggy, unfinished mess
that left franchise fans peeved, Forza 7 was
a loot-box fueled disaster, and I think at this point there’s nothing left to
be said about the cataclysmic Star Wars Battlefront II.
This week EA met with their
shareholders again to try to explain themselves for what was going on.
According to them Battlefront II was
a fiscal disaster because it sold seven million copies instead of eight million
(gasp!), but what really intrigued me here were the reports for what’s going on
with Anthem.
Originally slated for a late-2018
release, EA and BioWare’s Destiny ripoff
sci-fi themed MMO has been officially bumped back to 2019. EA maintains that
the game hasn’t actually been delayed though, but rather been pushed back in
the scheduling because they want it to “have a chance to get more attention as
a new IP outside of the crowded Fall marketplace”. They also promised a new Battlefield game would be taking its
place this November, and I hope for fans of that franchise that they were
already working on that beforehand because a game made in just 10 months
doesn’t sound pleasant.
So yeah, it’s been delayed and EA is
too cowardly to admit it. One has to wonder why they didn’t do this for poor Titanfall 2 back in October 2016, but
let’s not open that can of worms again.
But a delay always begs the question: what’s going on
behind the scenes that’s causing the game to miss the initial deadline? There’s
always the option of the game just not far enough along in development to be
ready for October, but considering what’s been going on at EA over the past few
months makes me think something a little more peculiar is happening with Anthem right now.
Personally I think EA is sending the
game back a bit to ensure that Battlefront
II doesn’t happen again. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if they were
trying to engineer a reverse effect: a game so good that everyone turned off by
EA’s antics in 2017 would be interested in buying their products again. Just by
watching the E3 trailer for Anthem it’s
clear it has potential to beat Destiny at
its own game, but it also has a lot of potential for EA to mess around by
adding in pay-to-win content and ruin the whole experience. I wouldn’t be
surprised if the idiots running the company behind the scenes initially thought
they could pull off the microtransactions and loot boxes in Battlefront II without too much anger,
and they could do the same thing with the same lack of consequences in Anthem. But now that the fans have made
it loud and clear that they won’t stand for this anymore, the reason for the
delay might be them dialing back on the premium elements of the game.
Or maybe they’ll end up taking the
Bethesda route and just push the review embargo up to launch day so they can
get a bunch of suckers buying the game without a chance to read the reviews.
It’s not exactly an uncommon practice
for publishers to do this after being met with a disaster in one of their most
popular franchises. The hilariously inept Assassin’s
Creed Unity proved to be something of a wake-up call for Ubisoft, as they
gave the franchise a year-long vacation in 2016 as they tried to make the
Egyptian themed Assassin’s Creed Origins up
to snuff with the best games in the series. Ubi has just come off of somewhat
of a redemption year, with several well-received titles as well as possibly
their best E3 conference ever. It wouldn’t surprise me if EA was trying to
force that route and come out of Anthem looking
like one of the good guys.
We’ll have to wait until 2019 to see
where Anthem ends up on EA’s garbage
scale, but for now a delay is a great way to make people speculate on what’s
going on behind those closed doors. Personally I’d love to see EA take the high
road and make sure the game is something that gamers will love without a lot of
the bullcrap that finds its way into their games these days, especially now
that Destiny 2 has fallen victim to
those practices itself. Or maybe I’m right in that the game just fell behind in
development and the crew needs some extra time, but considering the fate of Mass Effect Andromeda that seems pretty
unlikely to me right now.
In any case, right now Anthem is looking pretty ambiguous.
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