BioWare discusses Anthem revival, picks up team of around 30 developers

Anthem cataclysm
Anthem cataclysm (Image credit: EA)

What you need to know

  • Anthem is a third-person action game from BioWare.
  • It garnered poor reviews at launch due to its story and technical issues.
  • BioWare is working on an overhaul of the game.
  • Anthem is part of EA Access.

Many months ago, rumors were floating around that BioWare was planning a massive overhaul of Anthem. The game's launch didn't go smoothly because of the convoluted and incomplete story and performance issues. Since then, the team has fixed the technical issues, but the overall problems with gameplay remain.

Today, Christian Dailey, the Studio Director for BioWare Austin, discussed the Anthem revival and how the team was experimenting with certain features. You can read an excerpt from the BioWare blog below.

The Anthem incubation team has kicked off and we are starting to validate our design hypotheses. Incubation is a term we use internally – it essentially means we are going back and experimenting/prototyping to improve on the areas where we believe we fell short and to leverage everything that you love currently about Anthem. We are a small team – about 30-ish, earning our way forward as we set out to hit our first major milestone goals. Spoiler – this is going to be a longer process. And yes, the team is small but the whole point of this is to take our time and go back to the drawing board. And a small team gives us the agility a larger one can't afford. We really want this experience to be different for the team and our players, but we know we have some tough challenges to tackle. We want to include you as we go and be open and honest with where we are at and what the expectations are with where we are going. The reality is you will see things that look awesome but end up on the cutting room floor or things that you might think suck that you feel we are spending too much time on... We have a great studio here in Austin working on Anthem and other cool projects.

It's unclear what the timeline for the Anthem overhaul is, but it it may be towards the end of 2020 or beyond. What do you want to see from the game's overhaul? Let us know.

Asher Madan

Asher Madan handles gaming news for Windows Central. Before joining Windows Central in 2017, Asher worked for a number of different gaming outlets. He has a background in medical science and is passionate about all forms of entertainment, cooking, and antiquing.