Anthem - Bioware's main focus now

HiddenX · January 25, 2018

Kotaku reports that Bioware concentrates their activities on Anthem now:

BioWare Doubles Down On Anthem As Pressure Mounts

Over the past few months, BioWare has essentially transformed into a single-game studio as it harnesses its teams to work on the ambitious multiplayer action game Anthem, sources say. There are still small teams maintaining Star Wars: The Old Republic and piecing together the next Dragon Age, which was recently rebooted, but the bulk of BioWare’s staff in both Edmonton and Austin are now on Anthem. And there’s a sense among BioWare employees that the company’s future is inextricably tied to this game.
Anthem, which was announced at E3 2017, is now scheduled for release in early 2019, according to three people familiar with the project. The “fall 2018” window mentioned during that E3 announcement was “never realistic,” one source said. Exact dates remain in flux—and Anthem's developers must also plan for a beta release, an EA Access launch, and an ongoing schedule of patches and updates—but it appears unlikely to developers that publisher EA will allow BioWare to delay the game any further than March 2019, when the company’s 2019 fiscal year comes to an end. (EA, like most publicly traded companies, uses the fiscal calendar as a basis for all of its decisions, as those dates determine how investors will behave.)

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Thanks rjshae!

More information.

Stingray · January 25, 2018

From same article, this seems of particular interest:

The past year has been tumultuous for BioWare and involved some major changes to the studio. One was to reboot the fourth Dragon Age, which at the time was code-named Joplin, according to two sources. (There’s a running theme here—Anthem’s codename was Dylan.) The goal, those sources said, was to implement more “live” elements into the game, although two of those sources stressed that this next Dragon Age will still have a heavy focus on characters and story, whenever it does come out. It’s not clear what a “live” version of Dragon Age might look like, but EA has been public about its embrace of games as a service, and its lack of interest in releasing $60 games that do not have any sort of revenue tail, whether that means paid extra content, microtransactions, or something else.

UPDATE (1/25, 9:50am): The day following the publication of this article, BioWare studio head Casey Hudson confirmed that the next Dragon Age will indeed be a live game. “Reading lots of feedback regarding Dragon Age, and I think you’ll be relieved to see what the team is working on,” he wrote on Twitter. “Story & character focused. Too early to talk details, but when we talk about ‘live’ it just means designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story.”

RIP BioWare

henriquejr · January 25, 2018

What's a 'live game", please?

Shagnak · January 25, 2018

Re: Anthem, this is worth reading:

BioWare betting the farm on a game that no-one is excited about

Bye bye Bioware.

Corwin · January 25, 2018

Bioware has been the walking dead for several years; now it's receiving the last rites and a protracted burial. Personally, I won't touch either game!!

azarhal · January 25, 2018

henriquejr said:
What's a 'live game", please?

It means it is released and that it get regular post release content/features/patches.

For example, Dragon Age Inquisition was a "live game" for a year with its monthly patches with new features (and 3 DLCs in a year).

Mosaic · January 25, 2018

Made me think of this, https://imgur.com/gallery/3Cvyl

A little more prophetic every day.

Edit to add: It's a real shame too. In some ways the pressure to be a game company that makes Anthems and not RPGs, it's already lost to us even if it "succeeds." I quite enjoyed their style of RPGs and hope someone steps in to fill the vacuum.

you · January 25, 2018

Show some sympathy - they are being forced to do something that is against their innate grain. EA wants micro transaction; multiplayer; loot boxes and tons of DLC. These are things that bioware never really embraced so now they are forced to squeeze them into their type of game. Of course many of the better folks have, are or will be leaving so as said RIP bioware. Maybe they (ex bioware folks) will get together and start a new studio ?

Avantre · January 26, 2018

I certainly understand why the founding guys got out and one set up a microbrewery - I'd probably need a drink or ten after dealing with EA too.

Arkadia7 · January 26, 2018

"live game" - ugh, getting really bad vibes from that one. Why do I get the feeling it will mean always online connection required, even in single player mode, loot boxes up the yin yang, and regular occurring fees for all the enhancements and improvements to a MMO-like experience. Can't wait to see this!

GabrielMP_19 · January 26, 2018

Yeah, live games means that you have to buy the ending on a DLC

azarhal said:
It means it is released and that it get regular post release content/features/patches.

For example, Dragon Age Inquisition was a "live game" for a year with its monthly patches with new features (and 3 DLCs in a year).

mercy · January 26, 2018

Anthem = Bioware Burial.

Bye-bye, baaby. Soo long. And thaanks for the FIIiiISH.. Especially ME 1-3!!

azarhal · January 26, 2018

GabrielMP_19 said:
Yeah, live games means that you have to buy the ending on a DLC

BioWare has kinda been doing that ever since ME2 (or DAO if you consider Witch Hunt the real ending for that game) and they didn't really do "live games" until DAI (patching was not regular until that game which had monthly patching).

Stingray · January 26, 2018

azarhal said:
It means it is released and that it get regular post release content/features/patches.

For example, Dragon Age Inquisition was a "live game" for a year with its monthly patches with new features (and 3 DLCs in a year).

Pretty sure you're dreaming if you think bug fixes and a few DLCs is what EA really means when they talk about "live games".

Saxon1974 · January 26, 2018

Only things I liked from them was infinity games...

NewDArt · January 26, 2018

If it's a competent looter shooter, I'll be happy with it. I like the genre.

Live game can mean anything. I'm not big into delusional paranoia - so I'm not going to assume it's evil incarnate.

It's just another kind of opportunism that might also benefit both the game and consumer in some ways - and more than likely be a detriment in other ways.

Personally, I can only spend so much of my life being disappointed with EA and Bioware. I just can't muster the energy to hate on them for doing what most people do every single day.

Beyond that, I like several of their games - I just don't love them.

Then again, I love very, very few games.

azarhal · January 26, 2018

Stingray said:
Pretty sure you're dreaming if you think bug fixes and a few DLCs is what EA really means when they talk about "live games".

Regular patches and content, not a few. Also, mp events are a type of content. DAI was a "live game" for a year.

If you want a better EA example, the Sim 4 is a "live service" game. It was released in 2014. It is a single player game only. Its latest patch is from November 2017 and it has 29 DLCs (range from full expac size to smaller content/feature).

SirJames · January 26, 2018

Windows 10 only.

Supporting more operating systems just doesn't make financial sense when it will cost you that juicy Micro$oft bribe!

ChaosTheory · January 26, 2018

It's sad when Dart's the only optimist in a thread…

I still like BioWare. They've had to adapt and compete and just haven't gotten it right. They've been focusing too much on impressing the 12-year old gamer with unchecked access to Mom's credit card instead of presenting a mature, deep gaming experience to appeal to everyone.

But I believe The Witcher 3 will save them. In fact, CDProjektRed may save everyone in this genre.

Prior to TW3, RPG developers were so cynical. They felt the gaming community had become just a bunch of whiny trolls who could never be happy anymore. But TW3 showed them it's not about glitter spin/jump effects, awesome buttons and spawning content every 10 steps.

Anthem will be the first BioWare game produced (majority of) post TW3, and I believe it will be a pretty good game. Certainly better than ME:A, which I didn't think was that bad considering the absolute train wreck during its development.

Mustawd · January 26, 2018

Shagnak said:
Re: Anthem, this is worth reading:

BioWare betting the farm on a game that no-one is excited about

Bye bye Bioware.

It's an interesting article, but the author makes some statements as fact, although there doesn't seem any way to verify one way or another. For example:

Regarding Dragon Age: Inquisition: "Still, the game sold well and reviews were stronger than for BioWare's two proceeding games"

Regarding Mass Effect Andromeda: "The game sold poorly, the first genuine BioWare bomb, and suddenly the future of the company seemed in doubt."

As far as I know, neither of these are verifiable statements. Yes, EA has stated that DA:I helped lead improved profit margins during the fiscal quarter of release. However, that does not speak to how well it sold. Instead it speaks to the revenue/cost ratio of the game. That it was developed efficiently, relative to its sales performance.

Yes, press and reviews for Mass Effect Andromeda were not positive. However, I haven't seen any sales figures for the game that would lead me to believe it sold poorly. Closure of Bioware studio who developed would seem to indicate sales were not up to par, but that's just speculation.

It kind of makes me start questioning almost every other statement that's new to me in the article. *shrug*

Anthem - Bioware's main focus now

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