Anthem is officially dead after EA pulled the plug on the servers recently. A video chat surfaced where Mark Darrah, a studio vet who handled executive producer duties on the looter shooter, spilled tea to YouTuber Destin Legarie about what went wrong. The developer admitted the team looked at Diablo for ideas when they definitely should have copied Destiny to fix the loot and endgame loops.
Flying felt great, but broke combat balance since enemies needed ranged attacks to hit hovering targets. Co-op also suffered because veterans would speedrun the story while leaving noobs confused. Darrah wonders if a nine-month public beta might have saved the project, enabling the crew to iterate live before slapping a finished label on the box.
Austin developers likely should have taken control sooner, given their experience with Star Wars: The Old Republic. The executive rejected the internet narrative that BioWare must stick to single-player RPGs. He argues that studios must evolve or die while citing Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect as pivots. EA shares some guilt, yet the creator admits the concept was a massive reach.
Hope remains for the future despite Dragon Age: The Veilguard flopping financially. The company currently operates as a single-project house focused entirely on the upcoming Mass Effect installment. This shift prevents splitting talent across multiple titles as they did with Mass Effect: Andromeda. This ensures the whole squad grinds on one game instead of multitasking.
Flying felt great, but broke combat balance since enemies needed ranged attacks to hit hovering targets. Co-op also suffered because veterans would speedrun the story while leaving noobs confused. Darrah wonders if a nine-month public beta might have saved the project, enabling the crew to iterate live before slapping a finished label on the box.
Austin developers likely should have taken control sooner, given their experience with Star Wars: The Old Republic. The executive rejected the internet narrative that BioWare must stick to single-player RPGs. He argues that studios must evolve or die while citing Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect as pivots. EA shares some guilt, yet the creator admits the concept was a massive reach.
Hope remains for the future despite Dragon Age: The Veilguard flopping financially. The company currently operates as a single-project house focused entirely on the upcoming Mass Effect installment. This shift prevents splitting talent across multiple titles as they did with Mass Effect: Andromeda. This ensures the whole squad grinds on one game instead of multitasking.
