Bioware’s Anthem may allow players to play earlier than what’s usual for EA as a company and all of their games. Here are the clues that reveal what kind of early access might be available.
In preparations for the upcoming new trailer and gameplay demo at EA Play 2018 this Weekend, I thought I’d gather some more of the most recent information about the game. The following was released in the beginning of May, so you might have heard or seen it elsewhere already. If not, keep reading! It’s an interesting update about the game’s potential Early Access feature!
Based on EA’s “Prepared Remarks” (link to the document in the “sources” section at the bottom of the article) report from May 2018, Bioware may be planning a unique for the company and their games early access to Anthem in the beginning of 2019. In this document among the (somewhat boring) discussions about the fiscal quarter 2018 reports the CEO Andrew Wilson revealed a few very interesting things about the upcoming Action RPG from Bioware.
First of all the project is described as “stunning and ambitious”. According to Andrew:
Every dimension of this game will offer something entirely new for a wide audience of players – from a new universe with unique stories that BioWare is creating, to the cooperative gameplay, to the epic and beautiful environment that constantly evolves around players.
Anthem is a fundamentally social experience, and we will open new ways for fans to join the community and play early, enabling us to shape and refine the game with their input and feedback. We’re deeply excited to launch this brand new franchise, and equally excited to work with our players to make Anthem a game they can’t wait to play and share with their friends for years to come
It is in these words where you should be looking for the new and unique early play access feature. There is a high possibility that Anthem might choose to launch in an extended “Early Access” or Open Beta. There have been quite a lot of titles in the past few years – games of all kinds and genres launching in an extended early access period where players are able to play and help the developers shape up the game before its final release.
You are probably aware that EA has a traditional “Early Play” feature on all of their games. It is a period of a few days up to a week where Origin Members and people who pre-order their games – a head-start if you will. The way it was worded by EA in this case, though, points out that Anthem’s case will likely be different.
Now, I personally only have experience with the Card Collecting Game Gwent: The Witcher Card Game which is currently in its final stage of the Open Beta test and months of Closed Beta testing before that. If a game is working properly, an extended Open Beta could be something absolutely fantastic for both the community and the developers. If, however, the project is not finished up to an appropriate level to be shown to the masses, this may seriously hurt the already very fragile state in which Anthem is placed currently.
It has become known that EA and Bioware pulled nearly all possible resources to work on Anthem as the game has already been delayed once from its originally announced release for the end of 2018 to early 2019. It has also been said that the game will launch at the end of the fiscal period for the company, which is March 2019. With that said it seems highly unlikely that Bioware will be ready for any form of this rumored “early access” feature before March next year, meaning that the game may not actually launch as a finished product then.
You might remember that according to many it was the early access through pre-orders and Origin Access members that ruined Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s launch. That’s not entirely true, of course, because the game was only partially fixed and patched on Release Day. However, the few days early access allowed players to see how far from a finished and polished the title was and opted for a refund or decided not to get the game at all. What I mean to say with this reminder is that Early Access can sometimes be a double-edged knife. Bioware did not manage to fix all of the game’s issues in the short few days period prior to the official launch, but they did offer a release-day patch at least that dealt with some of the nastiest and most annoying bugs.
There is no doubt that Anthem strives to be a service “for years to come”. It will not be a normal and standard game. Let’s get back to another quote from the Prepared Remarks document:
Anthem is a fundamentally social experience, and we will open new ways for fans to join the community and play early, enabling us to shape and refine the game with their input and feedback. We’re deeply excited to launch this brand new franchise, and equally excited to work with our players to make Anthem a game they can’t wait to play and share with their friends for years to come.
The information we have so far from this and other sources clearly shows how desperately Anthem wants to differentiate itself from the MMO genre. It was originally expected that this title will be a multiplayer co-op shooter with exploration elements. Now it is known that Anthem can be played solo. In fact, the game is expected to have a strong story presented in series of updates (episodic chapters?) over time. All set in this brand new wild and constantly changing and evolving (based on your actions) world.
Don’t forget that EA Play is this weekend and if you can’t catch it live, you will be able to find absolutely everything about Anthem, Star Wars: The Old Republic (if any) and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 that is said or shown during the event right here on VULKK.com! To be certain you wont miss anything, be sure to Subscribe to receive New Posts Notifications!
