Kotaku: Anthem will determine the fate of BioWare

Anthem‘s online action game could decide the future of BioWare. If the project fails, Electronic Arts is able to disband the company’s offices in Austin and Edmonton. This is stated in the column of Kotaku editor-in-chief Jason Schreier.

The journalist’s gloomy forecast is based on data from sources close to Bioware.

According to them, Electronic Arts is very much counting on the success of Anthem. The game should become a competitor to Destiny 2. To do this, the publisher is consolidating the forces of two BioWare studios to work on it.

If they fail, they may share the fate of BioWare Montreal. Recall that last year EA liquidated the BioWare office in Montreal after the role-playing game Mass Effect: Andromeda did not meet the expectations of publishers. The staff of BioWare Montreal was transferred to the EA Motive studio.

Anthem has been in development since 2012. Progress is complicated by BioWare’s problems with the Frostbite engine.

The work schedule was also affected by the scandal around loot boxes in Star Wars Battlefront II. According to Kotaku, because of him, the mechanics of monetization in the upcoming game had to be revised.

Schreier writes that recently Electronic Arts postponed the release of Anthem from autumn 2018 to March 2019. By March next year, the publisher plans to conduct beta testing and release the game in early access EA Access.

Also on the topic:

• BioWare: we abandoned KotOR 2 in favor of Mass Effect for the sake of creative freedom
• A former BioWare employee spoke out against monetization in EA games

Source: Kotaku