EA Confirms Anthem Delay, Lets Battlefield Launch Window Slip Out

Just earlier this week we reported that a 'delay' was inevitable for BioWare's upcoming action [...]

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Just earlier this week we reported that a "delay" was inevitable for BioWare's upcoming action title, Anthem. In the report listed many reasons why for the delay, including unrealistic expectations, other AAA titles being prioritized, and more. Now, EA has confirmed this delay - though they don't want you to call it that.

"It's not a delay," EA's Blake Jorgensen told the Wall Street Journal. "People are trying to create a story," he added despite the company themselves announcing it as a 2018 release. Being that a delay is not getting something at its expected time, it sure sounds like a delay which matches with the earlier reports we covered about the reasons leading up to the push back and why the original timeframe was unreleastic.

In the statement above, EA's Blake Jorgensen also confirmed that a part of this was not to conflict with the new Battlefield game releasing this year, which is set for October. So far an official Battlefield hasn't been revealed, and this news does fall in-line with the annual rotation.

As far as our previous coverage,

"The "fall 2018" window mentioned during that E3 announcement was "never realistic," one source told Kotaku. Exact dates remain in flux—and Anthem's developers must also plan for a beta release, an EA Access launch, and an ongoing schedule of patches and updates—but it appears unlikely to developers that publisher EA will allow BioWare to delay the game any further than March 2019, when the company's 2019 fiscal year comes to an end. (EA, like most publicly traded companies, uses the fiscal calendar as a basis for all of its decisions, as those dates determine how investors will behave.)"

Anthem has seen many rotating members to its team, including Mass Effect's Casey Hudson who came back to the company after leaving in 2014. With production on Anthem at an all time high now that Andromeda is suspended, one "unnamed" source told Kotaku that the game felt screwed at this point. Though that is just one opinion, others are hopeful that the aggressive fan feedback to EA regarding many areas seen as shortcomings will caution the mega-publisher to listen to its people, to its investors, and take the time needed to do their big franchises right. That, and many Anthem heavy hitters are being completely transparent with the community about the game, even taking to popular social forums to answer fan questions. Because of this, hope isn't lost - it just might be a little late. Quality over quantity, as they say.

For now Anthem is set for a loose 2019 release window.

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