Anthem is out in the wilds, and it seems its reception has been mixed – it’s definitely not the blockbuster, review-parading title that any developer – and publisher – would like their games to be. Reports peg Anthem’s boxed game sales as half that of Bioware’s previous Mass Effect: Andromeda – which was, again, half those of Mass Effect 3. Perhaps it’s a tale of gamers taking a step back in trust regarding Bioware’s ability to deliver, following Andromeda’s reception, perhaps it has been superseded in interest by multiplayer-focused games (as we’ve seen, the industry trend has gone on towards having competitive multiplayer, instead of cooperative multiplayer designs). Whatever the reason, Anthem seems to have been met will a less-than-expected interest when it comes to sales – the opening weekend sales were lower than both Kingdom Hearts 3 and Resident Evil 2. And the PC version of the game has been ill-received by critics and gamers alike, if Metacritic still holds weight in this review-bombing world.
That said, EA is committing to content drops for the game – until May 2019, that is. This in itself sets a mild alarm ringing – this can’t possibly represent publisher’s investment in the game – three months is a very unimpressive commitment to the longevity of a game universe in the scale of Anthem. So many plans for the game to usher in the “games as a platform” concept of regular content drops, I’d be dumbstruck to find that EA might consider dropping the money bag like this.
An increase in sales volume seems to be the way to go for the publisher to commit to additional “Acts” of content – everything after the “Cataclysm” may content update is locked, for now – if you’ll remember Mass Effect: Andromeda, support and planned DLC for the game was canned some time after it was brought to a much more agreeable state (I’d say the game was actually a good Mass Effect game). While this may be just a matter of additional content not being yet locked, which is possible, it doesn’t instill much confidence in EA’s own confidence. I’m yet to play Anthem, so I leave this question to you in the poll and comments: do you believe Anthem has what it takes to grow into a great game with content drops? Is it already a great game? Or were you disappointed?
Source: EA Anthem Facts via TPU
