#Anthem 2.0 update
#Anthem 2.0 full

Though updates released in the months following launch to address some of the major issues, it was clear that a more serious overhaul would be necessary if Anthem was to be redeemed. A repetitive structure, unimaginative missions, and an uneven integration of the single-player story got in the way of many players’ enjoyment – and that’s before they reached the sparse endgame experience. Though Anthem was BioWare’s foray into the online action/RPG space (ostensibly as a rival to living games like Destiny 2), it hit some obstacles almost immediately. “2020 was a year unlike any other however and while we continue to make progress against all our game projects at BioWare, working from home during the pandemic has had an impact on our productivity and not everything we had planned as a studio before COVID-19 can be accomplished without putting undue stress on our teams,” Dailey says. Even if the team has wonderful ideas, are they good enough to turn around perception after so long? Plus, the extraordinary conditions of development during the last 12 months also played a role. While BioWare and publisher EA did not provide detailed reasons for the decision, it’s not hard to understand that investing in Anthem at this phase would be a risky proposition.

#Anthem 2.0 full

Though players can continue to access Anthem in its current form (for now), that form will remain full of unrealized potential. No tweaks to the Javelins, no skill tree overhaul, and no Artifact system. In short, this means that all of the enhancements and changes the team has talked about in the two years since the game’s launch will never be implemented. We will, however, continue to keep the Anthem live service running as it exists today,” reads the announcement from executive producer Christian Dailey. “In the spirit of transparency and closure we wanted to share that we’ve made the difficult decision to stop our new development work on Anthem (aka Anthem NEXT).

#Anthem 2.0 update

Today BioWare announced that the Anthem update has been canceled and new development on the game has ceased. Unfortunately, that transformation will not happen. Many fans who saw the potential in the original version have been waiting for BioWare’s “Anthem Next” update to transform the beleaguered game and turn things around (like Final Fantasy XIV or No Man’s Sky). Whether or not Anthem 2.0 can pull this off remains to be seen, but if Outriders can deliver on what it is promising, it is sure to take some of the limelight away from an Anthem relaunch.Anthem launched almost exactly two years ago, and the launch was rough. Just take a look at Star Wars: Battlefront 2 or Fallout 76 to see how a successful revival can turn a game around.

The longer lifecycle of online games today means that even titles with a problematic launch can come back from the brink to become solid experiences with dedicated fans. Once those Expeditions are over, players will unlock another challenge: the Eye of the Storm. After beating the roughly 40-hour primary campaign, as revealed in the Outriders Broadcast #4, there will be 20 hours of endgame content divided among 15 Expeditions.

In contrast, Outriders has promised to deliver a fully realized experience out of the box. This is the kind of shortcoming that a games-as-a-service approach should be able to redeem and enhance, but in Anthem's case, it was too little, too late. One of those three was little more than a rerun through the game's final campaign mission. When players began to reach max levels and high-end loot, they explored the endgame Strongholds – of which there were three. One of the critical ways that Anthem failed was to sell the loot cycle in the endgame. Like Anthem, the world of Outriders is subject to a deadly and mysterious force, and players must team up to explore the hostile world while searching for better and better loot, a core part of the loot shooter experience. In the meantime, the Outriders development team seems to have been taking notes.