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BioWare is reportedly working on a big update for its troubled online shooter, Anthem, in the hopes of turning its fortunes around.The report comes from Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, who has found that the plans for changes have been in the works for a while now and are internally referred to as “Anthem Next” and “Anthem 2.0”. As you’d expect, the planned changes are significant and could see drastic alterations applied to some of the game’s key systems, including but not limited to its loot, missions, difficulty, social aspects and the game map generally.
What’s clear from the report is that the game’s developers are dedicated to keeping the game alive, regardless of the many pronouncements of its death. According to one source, teams at both of BioWare’s offices have “spent a few months just tearing it down and figuring out what needed to change fundamentally (a lot).
And we’ve been rebuilding for another few months since.”Times have been difficult for the game after a series of high profile staff departures and development delays and the need for an overhaul was acknowledged as far back as September when BioWare’s head of Live Services acknowledged fan concerns over issues in the game and said the team was doing a “thorough review” rather than plumping for quick fixes. At the moment, however, there are no specifics with regards to how exactly the game will change or even when players can expect to see the changes implemented.
With so much to alter, there are even still discussions over whether it’s better to roll out smaller updates, go for one big update or even release an entirely new game (although naturally, Kotaku notes, current players wouldn’t pay full-price for changes if that was the case). Anthem isn’t the only game on BioWare’s plate, either.
Dragon Age 4 is still in development and according to Schreier, there’s even a new Mass Effect title in its very early stages too.
As such, Anthem’s future is likely to be foggy for a while longer until reports of planned changes are confirmed or denied by BioWare and EA themselves.
