Anthem Transitions to Seasonal Updates as Future Looks Murky

A new update from BioWare makes Anthem's future seem up in the air.

News by Eric Van Allen, News Editor

17 September 2019

The future of BioWare's mech suit looter shooter Anthem has seemed tenuous for a while, and an update today hasn't done much to establish the goalposts moving forward.

BioWare head of live service Chad Robertson wrote today in a blog post that Anthem is moving away from the "Acts" structure for its updates, instead aiming for a seasonal update structure that will deliver challenges and chases "similar to what you've seen." But more notably, Robertson doesn't give much indication of what's ahead in the long-term for Anthem.

"As I've said previously, we want to be transparent with you that we know more work needs to be done to make Anthem better. We also want to ensure we're backing up our words with a great game you can play. So I don't have any news today to share about the long-term changes we are bringing to Anthem. What I can say is that we will continue to engage with you, our community, through PTS when we can show you what is coming."

Anthem is in a state of uncertainty at this point. The launch of its anticipated Cataclysm event didn't go quite as well as players hoped, though some fans seem to have enjoyed it over time as BioWare adjusted it. One of its leads recently departed the studio, and just last week, Anthem joined the lineup of games in the EA Access vault.

Without a clear direction ahead, the purported seven-to-ten-year cycle seems murky at best. If the scale is rolling back, I hope this means a Realm Reborn-style reboot of the game is in the cards. Whatever Anthem could be, it's now hopefully got the space it needs to define a way forward.