Despite the continued declarations from those who say Anthem is a dead game and has been for a while, BioWare is reportedly still very much invested in the game. In fact, the studio is supposedly working on a massive, complete overhaul of Anthem, according to Kotaku. Sources have told the outlet that BioWare is working on something that’s been called “Anthem 2.0” to give an idea of how large the overhaul will be, but it’s unclear at this time how or when that redo will be released.
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Kotaku’s Jason Schreier cited several sources who are reportedly familiar with BioWare’s Anthem plans in the report about the expected overhaul for the game. The overhaul has gone by names like “Anthem 2.0” and “Anthem Next,” though the name isn’t the only part of the plans that hasn’t been set yet. BioWare reportedly hasn’t decided yet whether it’ll release one massive expansion to straighten things out our whether it’ll follow a path like Hello Games did with No Man’s Sky where a series of updates are released to fix things in waves.
One possible avenue being considered by BioWare is releasing whatever the next iteration of Anthem is as a new game. That’s probably an outcome that wouldn’t sit very well with Anthem owners, though as Kotaku pointed out, charging people who own Anthem the full price for the new version probably wouldn’t happen anyway. The backlash over that would be intense, and Anthem has already endured its share of criticism, some of it deserved while some parts were inevitably exaggerated.
Among the things BioWare wants to overhaul in Anthem are the game’s loot systems, the way players interact with one another, and the world itself. One suggestion indicated that the map might be split into different parts instead of being kept as one map while another would make it so that players don’t have to head back to Fort Tarsis after completing every mission.
Electronic Arts has been committed to keeping Anthem up and running, though events like BioWare’s Ben Irving and other developers leaving BioWare have cast an even bigger shadow over the game’s future. Despite what these developments might’ve suggested, Kotaku’s report says that dozens, perhaps hundreds of developers across BioWare’s multiple offices are still working to make Anthem a better game.
One person who was reportedly familiar with the matter said the overhaul itself has been torn apart and rebuilt multiple times.
“We spent a few months just tearing it down and figuring out what needed to change fundamentally (a lot),” one person told Kotaku. “And we’ve been rebuilding for another few months since.”
It’s unclear at this time how, when, or if this Anthem overhaul would be released. Electronic Arts declined Kotaku’s request for a comment.
