The Anthem VIP demo has just ended and if everything was not perfect, especially during the first hours when the connection was literally impossible, we still took the time to capture the game on Xbox One X. You can watch Fort Tarsis and some exploration in 4K, and a coop gameplay video in 1080p.
All comments (15)
I've read the articles and the blog post by BioWare on the game's technical problems, Will try the open beta this next weekend, if they don't delay it due to technical issues.
I've read both good and bad comments on the VIP Beta, so want to try it for myself and form my own opinion. I just hope the game is very good and sucessful enough for EA, For BioWare's sake. After Mass Effect: Andromeda's failures, I'm sure EA will happily shutdown BioWare if Anthem fails.
Below are 2 excerpts from the following article, though it's worth reading it in full, it's not long and sheds some light on how important Anthem is for BioWare's future.
Kotaku - BioWare Doubles Down On Anthem As Pressure Mounts:
"Over the past few months, BioWare has essentially transformed into a single-game studio as it harnesses its teams to work on the ambitious multiplayer action game Anthem, sources say. There are still small teams maintaining Star Wars: The Old Republic and piecing together the next Dragon Age, which was recently rebooted, but the bulk of BioWare’s staff in both Edmonton and Austin are now on Anthem. And there’s a sense among BioWare employees that the company’s future is inextricably tied to this game."
"To BioWare staff, the stakes feel higher than they ever have. As one developer told me, there’s a belief that if Anthem doesn’t live up to EA’s expectations, BioWare will look very different in the future, especially after the disappointment of Mass Effect Andromeda led to EA absorbing BioWare Montreal into the studio EA Motive."
https://kotaku.com/monster-hunter-world-s-special-...
As for Star Wars: I can't imagine that anyone at EA is over the moon with the deal anymore. At this point it's probably more of a burden than an asset. I wonder how much of what's happened is actually Disney's fault. Almost every team at EA was pitching Star Wars projects at some point, including Bioware if some accounts can be trusted. It's curious why so few have seen the light of day.
While I love BioWare and its games, its strengths are in Single-Player Story games, clearly they're trying to change, or rather add Multiplayer and GaaS as strengths, which is what we're seeing with both Anthem and Dragon Age 4 being rebooted to be a "live game".
Like you've said, BioWare is very big, but I just don't see EA being patient enough with them if that transition from Single Player to Multiplayer fails or takes too long. The only studios I see as almost "unkillable" in EA's eyes are the FIFA and DICE ones, because they generate a lot of money for EA. But even the FIFA studio had to quickly do those time limited events with very OP FIFA Ultimate cards to increase revenue, since revenue from macrotransactions was slightly lower than expected.
Outside of those, no studio is truly safe, even if they are absorbed into other studios like BioWare Montreal was by EA Motive and DreamWorks Interactive/Danger Close Games was by EA DICE, becoming DICE Los Angeles. Basically, the problem is not that BioWare isn't big, but that if BioWare fails and EA doesn't know what to do with them, I just don't believe EA will wait until they do. They might just absorb them into other studios.
I don't hate EA, people say they're "evil", but they just want a lot of profit and pursue it more aggressively than most other companies. There are actually evil companies in this world who intentionally hurt and kill people without any regard, those are the evil companies - who people conveniently forget when criticizing EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc. EA is nothing like that, I just don't see them - taking into account their history and corporate culture, as being patient with studios that fail, however big they are.
For a game about mechs it's a shame most of them are so slender and humanoid. The guy in this footage looks like he was ripped right out of destiny.
At least they better fix the online and performance issues the demo had