Jason Schreier: How BioWare's Anthem Went Wrong (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, April 02, 2019, 14:23 (2118 days ago) @ cheapLEY

Was talking about this with some folks this morning. Here was my non-exhaustive first impressions:

That was a good article. Basically:

- Nobody ever ever decided what Anthem was
- Key features like flying were never key features. Anthem’s core differentiation was, for a long time, _not even part of the game._
- Constant developer shake up with no real leader until the final year of a 6 year project.
- EA leadership screwing things up + BioWare’s multiple studios trying to kill each other .
- Trying to make Anthem while the core team was struggling with Mass Effect: Andromeda. (All while the core Frostbite team was busy converting FIFA over to Frostbite)
- *Frostbite* - It sounds like EA demanding all their studios use Frostbite has now killed at least two major properties. The section on how unsuited Frostbite was to Anthem is an even worse indictment than how horribly unsuited it was for Mass Effect: Andromeda. Essentially: Very Unsuited multiplied by the demands that it be online multiplayer, which Frostbite doesn’t do.

At the end of the day, BioWare is straight up dying under a lack of leadership, EA miss management, and the demand that everything be Frostbite.