Bioware loses another Anthem lead, spelling bad news for the loot shooter

Chad Robertson, head of live services at Bioware, has announced he is leaving the studio after 14 long years, leaving Anthem in yet another questionable spot. 

Robertson made the announcement in a brief thread on Twitter, stating that Bioware’s troubled loot shooter is in “good hands” and there are “great things ahead” for fans who have stuck with it. 

“I join as a fan now, and look forward to playing BioWare games for years to come. I’m very excited about the next step of my journey in the game industry and look forward to sharing that soon,” reads the thread.

This news has come only a couple of months after the departure on Ben Irving from Bioware, a key member of the development team who had also spent a number of years with them. For those keeping a close eye on proceedings, this can’t instil much confidence in Anthem. 

Related: Death Stranding Review 

This is my last week with BioWare. I've been with the company for 14 years and am grateful for everything I've been part of here. SW:TOR, Anthem, the Austin studio, and BioWare are in good hands; you can expect great things ahead.

— Chad Robertson (@crobertson_atx) October 31, 2019

The future of Anthem has long remained uncertain, with updates becoming inconsistent as Bioware abandoned the roadmap it had previously set out at launch. A major event known as ‘Cataclysm’ finally arrived recently alongside a seasonal Halloween event, but beyond this the well is slowly running dry. 

“Anthem is a strange flawed adventure with glimpses of greatness buried behind an abundance of obtuse design decisions. What so many players love about Bioware is here, but fragmented in such a way that it becomes unrecognisable,” reads our 3/5 review.

“The core of Anthem – being its fearsome gunplay and angelic flight mechanics – are stellar, yet they’re held back by the mission structure that dictates them. Things could certainly improve with the introduction of deeper dungeons and endgame content, but right now Anthem is sadly underwhelming; a victim to the template it’s trying so hard to emulate.”

We’re genuinely unsure if Anthem is capable of a revival at this point, as something so drastic would require making an absurd amount of new content, which itself would be a big investment on the part of Electronic Arts. It’s not impossible, but unlikely.

In the coming months, we wouldn’t be surprised if Anthem adopts a different monetisation model or even goes free-to-play across all platforms, which would stand a chance of bringing in more players than it currently has. The core gameplay remains enjoyable, it just failed to live up to its massive potential.

 

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