BioWare's title Anthem does not have a good reputation. Now, it seems that the developer is looking to fix that.
According to a report from Kotaku, BioWare and parent company EA have been looking to overhaul Anthem. According to the site, some call it "Anthem 2.0" or "Anthem Next." There is no clear timeline for the updated game, with the developers not even knowing how it will be distributed. They are still trying to figure out whether updates should be released all at once or over an extended period of time. Most of Anthem's biggest systems, such as mission structure, loot, and its world will face drastic changes, though the developers have not figured out how that will look exactly. Anthem Next may even be an entirely new game, though those working on the game stated that it could take a lot of forms.
It is apparent that BioWare does not want to give up on Anthem, despite the game's horrible reputation. A good number of developers at BioWare's offices are quietly working on plans to overhaul the game.
"We spent a few months just tearing it down and figuring out what needed to change fundamentally (a lot)," stated one person working on the project. "And we've been rebuilding for another few months since."
Details on Anthem Next may be hazy, but a lot is planned to be overhauled, including the game's entire structure. BioWare may try separating the single contiguous map into smaller segments. This would allow developer to tweak and play around with those segments without having to worry that they may cause bugs and glitches across the entire map. A second person on the project stated that the developer is still doing "lots of testing things out and experimentation but still nothing concrete."
Anthem launched in February 2019, and was plagued with technical issues, vision struggles, and many other issues. The title was buggy and tedious, and was a complete flop. Many now consider the game to be on life support at best, with some claiming that the game is dead altogether. This reboot is what Anthem needs if it wants any chance at coming back to life.
BioWare has their hands full, as the alleged Anthem reboot is not the only project that the company is working on. The studio is working on a new Dragon Age title, and is reportedly in the early stages of developing a new Mass Effect game.
