There's A Very Sad Rumor About Anthem Going Around
The future of Anthem is in EA's hands now, and its time may be running out — at least, that's the rumor going around at the moment. According to Bloomberg, a handful of unnamed insiders claimed that a meeting was scheduled this week to examine the progress of Anthem Next, which is a BioWare project aimed at completely overhauling Anthem. From there, the game's publisher, EA, will allegedly make a final decision on whether or not to continue supporting its development.
VG247 reported that the developers had been busy showing off updates related to the new Anthem revamp, which might have suggested that the project was moving along well. With this rumor in the air, things may not be progressing as smoothly as one might have suspected.
The group working on Anthem Next currently consists of approximately 30 employees. Those who reported the rumor claimed that the team would need to have a minimum of three times that number in order to successfully pull off this new iteration of Anthem. Considering that this title was one of the most overhyped games of the decade that totally flopped, if this rumor holds any truth, the odds aren't in its favor.
When Anthem launched, critical reception was lukewarm at best. Sadly, things did not improve following its release. It essentially lost its entire Twitch base within months, and by Black Friday it dropped to a humiliating price of $5. What truly went wrong with Anthem is that fans of BioWare felt it lacked many of the elements that worked so well in other titles developed by the studio. Because it came up short in both the story and gameplay departments, it makes sense that Anthem Next will need such a sizable team to be a success.
If Anthem truly is on the chopping block and will require such a dedicated workforce to get it out the door in an acceptable form, will it be a wise investment for EA? Is it worth trying to resuscitate this 2-year-old game that aged so poorly? With Outriders due out this year, Anthem 2.0 may not have much wind left in its sails.
At present, EA has declined to make any comments as to the validity of this rumor. In the meantime, fans of the game will have to sit back and wait for the week to pass by to see whether Anthem Next will move forward or see cancelation.