Last year was not very kind to many divisions under EA’s banner. There were controversies and scandals that rocked many of them to their core. But it all started when Mass Effect: Andromeda was a bust in the eyes of both critics and fans. The game had all the hype and potential in the world, but for whatever reason, the game didn’t have the polish and shine that the previous ones had. Now, EA and Bioware are working on a new game, Anthem, and they’re promising it’ll be something much different.
In fact, according to Producer Mike Game, understanding what Anthem was was crucial during the dev process.
“It’s key to be very clear what this game is,” Gamble told Eurogamer. “It is not a single-player corridor shooter, it’s not a Mass Effect game, it’s not a Dragon Age game, as much as those IPs are special to us. As much as we have various projects in the works and there’s a team working on Dragon Age stuff right now, and Mass Effect is certainly not dead, Anthem is different and we have to highlight those differences, of which co-operative play is a big difference.”
It’s clear that they have a specific vision for Anthem, and that’s good, especially since they delayed the game until 2019 to make sure it’s done right. However, if the game is done right, there’s another question that needs to be asked…is Mass Effect ever coming back?
“Oh, no. Mass Effect is definitely still happening, That franchise is much too valuable to EA for them not to do anything with it.”
Andromeda was planned as a trilogy of its own, but with the failure of the game that’s now in jeopardy. If it does come back though, they’ll need to make sure they don’t make the same mistakes of the past.
