There’s plenty of argument to be had about when and where BioWare—the erstwhile king of RPGs—began its fall from grace, but I don’t think you can dispute the point it hit rock bottom: the 2019 release of Anthem, a live-service co-op looter-shooter that had little in common with the games that once made the studio great.
The game got a poor reception, including from us. Steven Messner scored the game 55% in his Anthem review and called it “deeply flawed and frequently frustrating,” though very pretty indeed (I am often described the same way). BioWare pledged to “reinvent” the game around a year after release until another year later in 2021, when EA execs said ‘Actually, hold that thought’, and cancelled development entirely.
But for my money? Anthem was the nadir—the mortal wound that had onlookers grimacing and wondering if a once-beloved studio wasn’t heading for a bleak and quiet end. It felt like the culmination of EA’s philosophy that BioWare—in the words of studio vet David Gaider—”didn’t have to try and appeal” to its traditional fans, because they’d turn up for whatever it put out. “You had to worry about the people who weren’t [already RPG fans], which was the audience we actually wanted, which was much larger.”
Well, if the ignoble Ol’ Yellering of Anthem on January 12 doesn’t put paid to that philosophy, I suppose nothing will. For its part, BioWare has put out two games since development on Anthem officially ended: Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The remaster of three classic Mass Effects went over well. The new Dragon Age, though, got a more tepid response.
I’m gonna go ahead and say it all rides on how the next Mass Effect game goes down as to whether Anthem’s end is seen as part of BioWare’s ignominious conclusion or the start of a new chapter. Forgive me, but I can’t say I’m optimistic.
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