It appears that Anthem is not going anywhere any time soon.
According to a new report by Kotaku's Jason Schreier, BioWare and EA are not only sticking to the online looter shooter, but are currently working on a massive overhaul for the whole game.
Anthem, which was released earlier this year, was met with a mixed reception due to several technical issues and a shallow gameplay loop. For many fans of the game, Anthem had a problem delivering on high-quality loot drops and keeping players engaged for long periods of time. According to Schreier, the game's entire loot system, along with other major mechanics such as the mission structure and the world map, in-game progression and difficulty will change drastically as development goes forward with the game's overhaul.
Schreier notes that the overhaul, which has been nicknamed Anthem 2.0 or Anthem Next, does not have a set plan just yet. Several proposals have been made at BioWare on how to deliver on the overhaul, from incremental releases similar to No Man's Sky, to game-changing expansion packs like Destiny. The overhaul may also see Anthem Next as a brand new game, which can take on multiple forms if the developers decide to go down that route.
“We spent a few months just tearing it down and figuring out what needed to change fundamentally (a lot), and we’ve been rebuilding for another few months since.” said one anonymous developer according to Schreier.
It should also be noted that BioWare Austin is slowly taking over most of the development of Anthem at this time. Part of the plan was for Austin to take over development after the game launched, though at the moment members in BioWare Edmonton and Austin are working on the Anthem overhaul at this time.
At the moment, BioWare is internally testing and experimenting with the internal systems of Anthem, though any concrete plans are still unconfirmed. Time will tell if BioWare is able to deliver on this all too, and whether or not this Anthem overhaul will revitalize the game.
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