BioWare Details Big Changes Ahead of 'Anthem' Open Demo

As with many demos, betas, etc for online games, the VIP Demo for BioWare's Anthem had a very rocky start to its play period. Understandable, given the rising interest in the title that feels like the Iron Man game we've always wanted. Near the tail-end of the VIP Demo, many of the problems have been resolved and BioWare took that and all of the community feedback and are pouring that into the open Demo that kicks off tomorrow.

BioWare's Chad Robertson recently took to the studio's blog to update interested in players on what's next and what the team has conquered thus far. "We're hard at work to be ready for our public demo weekend, starting tomorrow, 2/1," he began. "This week has been focused on improving the player experience in the demo – that focus was based on our learnings and your feedback. For those of you that played last weekend, you should see significant improvement in multiple areas over last week."

But the work is far from over, which is the nature of online games, but Robertson did go into detail about how the dev team is handling the upcoming play period. "Our ongoing scale testing this week has gone well. We're confident we are ready for the load we will see. Like last weekend, we will be prepared with more server capacity than we anticipate will be needed. However, predicting player numbers – particularly for a new game like Anthem in its first open public weekend – is very difficult.

"If more players decide to try the game than we anticipate, we also have systems in place to control entry rates of incoming players. This is to ensure players in the game are having uninterrupted fun and to give us time to increase capacity. If you encounter this situation, we hope you'll be patient with us and try again later. We'll have messaging on our servers on our server status page."

He also revealed that though there have been tons of fixes already implemented, there are still many left to go:

• Further performance Improvements
• Additional stability fixes
• Fixes to inscriptions showing up incorrectly
• Fixes to inscriptions from other Javelins being chosen
• Fixes to disappearing customization settings
• Fixes to XP gain behavior
• Audio improvements
• Improvements to PC controls, including flight and aiming
• A Social Hub: The Launch Bay
• And a few thousand more (literally)

The developmental road was not one without hardship, especially when the team first revealed the new IP on the tail end of the Mass Effect Andromeda controversy. Pair that with a growing skepticism concerning the vitality of online gaming, the studio definitely had their work cut out for them when it came to proving to their fans that this was an adventure worth checking out.

Luckily, they did just that and the overall attitude towards Anthem has shifted dramatically in a positive way and the team couldn't be more excited to share their progress with all.

We recently had a chance to play even more of the game and interview the team over at BioWare, while getting a chance to check out the endgame content and some of the story missions not available in the demo. You can check out our full thoughts with our coverage here, including how Anthem is different than we expected and why it was the Iron Man game we've been lusting for.

Thoughts on Anthem and everything you've seen thus far? Sound off in the comment section below, or hit me up over on Twitter @DirtyEffinHippy!