If you thought Anthem Next was in the clear following EA’s Andrew Wilson telling investors that he was confident in BioWare in spite of the fact that multiple key devs have bailed on the game in the last year, maybe revisit that premature sigh of relief. A new Bloomberg report cites unnamed sources inside EA who’ve said the company leadership plans to meet this week to hash out whether or not the Anthem reboot is still happening at all. Here’s the meat of the story, which EA apparently refused to comment on:
“This week, EA executives will review the latest version of Anthem Next and decide whether to expand the team or abandon the project, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing private information. The Anthem Next team includes about 30 people, BioWare said last year. People familiar with the project said it will need to expand to at least triple that in order to produce new content and continue attempting to overhaul the game. EA has not yet indicated whether it’s willing to commit that kind of budget to revive a maligned game.”
Readers will recall that Anthem as launched was riddled with issues, including a lacking storyline and endgame, to the point that a year ago BioWare announced it was abandoning its planned seasonal content schedule in favor of a major redesign of the live game. But the multiplayer shooter-RPG has since lost piles of core developers and big names, including the reboot’s studio director, BioWare’s general manager, and executive producer, putting the future of the title in doubt. Now, it appears EA will have to decide whether to double-down on its longshot bet or cut its losses entirely.
Get caught up on Anthem’s ordeal:
