In retrospect: In 2019, with Anthem, BioWare reached its lowest point

To say that BioWare 2019 is far from the glory times of the studio at this point is raining in the wet. BioWare's reputation in 2019 resembles almost nothing even the one in the studio five years ago.

Even in 2014, after Dragon Age II and Mass Effect 3 were heavily criticized – the former for being clearly a hasty job and the latter for the unsatisfactory ending – the Canadian developer still managed to find critical and public success with Dragon Age. : Inquisition, who even won the Game of the Year award in the first edition of The Game Awards.

Even though it was considered a relatively weak year for major releases, with the then new generation of consoles just beginning to mesh, the game still managed to make a good mark, and help restore BioWare's reputation at the end of the past decade. studio responsible for acclaimed and historical titles such as Baldur's Gate and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

This is not quite what happened.

In 2017, BioWare Montreal launched Mass Effect: Andromeda, a reboot that planned to re-establish the franchise after all the ME3 issues. The end result was a game marked by an uninteresting and unfocused story, forgettable characters and the terrible and hilarious facial animations, which for the moment buried any interest in the series.

And finally, in 2019, we arrived in Anthem!

Anthem had its release in late 2018. (Image: BioWare)

Developed by BioWare Edmonton, the company's original studio and responsible for its classic titles, the project that was later to be called Anthem brought great ambitions for the company, winning even the codename Dylan, in reference to the cultured and influential American musician Bob Dylan.

Anthem, however, can only be compared to Dylan's decay in the 1980s, or at most to the feeling of fans who felt betrayed when he started using electric instruments.

Following a teaser in 2014 (the year EA showed virtually nothing at E3) and officially unveiled in 2017, Anthem seemed to be Destiny's equivalent of Electronic Arts, being a game as a multiplayer online science-fiction service. Even in 2018, when it was possible to test the game, the overall reaction was somewhat lukewarm.

And the question was: could a studio known primarily for singleplayer experiences (even if they had StarWare's BioWare Austin's help: The Old Republic) be able to release a game with an emphasis on multiplayer, cooperative or competitive?

Well… no.

Anthem was one of the first major releases of 2019, and one of the first major disappointments. Empty, unfocused, with a little interesting gameplay and some activities to do, but none of them particularly special.

singleplayer experiences (even if they had StarWare's BioWare Austin's help: The Old Republic) be able to release a game with an emphasis on multiplayer, cooperative or competitive?

Well … no.

Anthem was one of the first major releases of 2019, and one of the first major disappointments. Empty, unfocused, with a little interesting gameplay and some activities to do, but none of them particularly special. It's amazing, in a way, how much the experience of playing Anthem adds nothing to the player, to the point that it basically faded from my mind until I was reminded when The Enemy's newsroom planned its list of biggest disappointments.

The negative reception, combined with its own technical problems, essentially annihilated BioWare's plans for the coming months, and the game roadmap was abandoned shortly thereafter. In April, a report by Jason Schreier to Kotaku revealed more of the game's troubled development process, which seems to have lost its way following the departure of director Casey Hudson, who had previously successfully headed the KOTOR projects and the Mass trilogy. Effect

Without central coordination, the game soon became unfocused and directed, to the point that shortly before the official announcement, it should be called Beyond, not Anthem. Worse, Schreier's report indicates that past successes created an undue sense of superiority, with many (especially at the head) hoping that everything would eventually fall into “BioWare Magic,” as was the case with Dragon Age: Inquisition.

In the end, the magic seemed to have been lost somewhere.

Several unanswered questions of game failure. (Image: BioWare)

Hudson eventually returned to BioWare years later, this time as General Manager of the studios, and after publishing the story promised to work to improve problems within the studio.
At this point, on the eve of early 2020, it is hard to know what to expect from Anthem's future, although sources say BioWare has not given up on the game yet.

At best, the game will gain a resurgence just like No Man's Sky. At worst, it will simply fall into oblivion.
Meanwhile, the producer is at its lowest point since its founding. Any confidence generated by the classics of the past has been undermined by the failures of the present.

Not only that, BioWare seems to lose more and more space and relevance when compared to other RPG studios, particularly CD Projekt RED, which a few months after the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition brought the even more acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and is about to release one of the most anticipated titles of 2020 with Cyberpunk 2077.

Even smaller developers such as Divinity's Larian Studios and Disco Elysium's ZA / UM are proving to offer more to the public. No wonder the first is working on Baldur's Gate III, the new game in the series that put BioWare on the map. We already know that a new Dragon Age is in production, and apparently there are plans to develop a new Mass Effect, but it is clear that these titles have to be sure hits to ensure the relevance – and even survival – of the studio.

On the downside, at least The Old Republic still has a dedicated audience, with MMORPG approaching $ 1 billion in revenue since its launch in 2011. It is certainly not as impressive as more than The $ 9 billion that Blizzard raised from World of Warcraft by 2017, but in a year with so many negatives, is still little consolation.