A recent tweet from Chad Robertson, BioWare’s head of live service, indicates that the studio is still fully committed to Anthem despite reports that many members of the development team are being shuttled over to work on what will become Dragon Age 4. Anthem has been struggling with community perception as of late, with many players believing that not enough is being done to fix the game’s many issues that continue to plague its day-to-day offerings.
Anthem is the worst-reviewed game in BioWare’s history as a studio, and has been yet another addition to the long list of games that fans believe publisher EA has harmed with rushed launches. While the game’s troubled release has certainly harmed the involved parties’ reputation, there’s hope yet for both — Dragon Age 4 is one of the most highly-anticipated releases in the pipeline and, despite not having a launch date, the acknowledgement that it’s being developed at all is enough for fans to get excited again. The Game Awards 2018’s brief Dragon Age 4 trailer was enough to prove that the game’s devoted and large following is hungry for another release, and that buzz hasn’t died down in the interim.
For Anthem, however, the new focus on Dragon Age 4 won’t reduce the amount of effort BioWare is putting into its live service loot shooter. According to Robertson, the team is very much committed to working on future content for Anthem, and there will be updates coming up soon. Here’s Robertson’s tweet, accompanied by the lead producer of Anthem, Michael Gamble, retweeting it with his own message:
Speculation on how much support Anthem is currently receiving began thanks to a GamesRadar report that suggested executive producer Mark Darrah, lead director Jonathan Warner, and Gamble have all stopped work on Anthem, although in the case of Warner, he will return after taking a sabbatical. Darrah fueled further speculation that Anthem’s future might include a much smaller amount of updates when he essentially confirmed he’s working on Dragon Age 4 in this tweet:
It’s important to note that it’s not unusual in the industry for team members to shuffle around post-launch, especially as studios re-allocate resources as development of certain titles begin to require more employees while others start to scale back. It’s also not surprising that Anthem fans are still somewhat leery regarding the news, as having key team members leave certainly feels like the title is beginning to get pushed back in priority despite the problematic state of its gameplay, including some key Anthem delays that have sunk hopes in recent weeks. The assurance that Anthem will continue to receive support will at least help a little, but fans of the game will likely remain anxious about the game’s current state of play until a major breakthrough finally occurs.
Source: Twitter/@crobertson_atx
