Bioware is one of the most respected video game developers in the world. Between the original Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age, and the original Knights of the Old Republic, they’ve proven time and time again that they know how to make video games. However, after the fallout Mass Effect 3’s ending, and then the backlash over the “incomplete” Mass Effect Andromeda, the company has been fighting to get back on the right footing. But, they’re hoping to do so with their next game, Anthem.
Anthem is set to be a big expansive title that mixes online play with deep exploration and story. But how the game came to be wasn’t as clear-cut as most game pitches. Bioware’s Casey Hudson admitted to Game Informer that it was a merging of ideas that made Anthem:
“We had people from all around BioWare and throughout the team pitching ideas. We did 20 or 30 different original [pitches] during the first pass. We’d all go off, and you’re inspired by something […] and you’re, ‘Hey, I think I know how everything should be” and you write that all out and you pitch it. It’s really interesting, because […] you get a value system around what you like and what feels right, but then you start to say, ‘We liked this one part of [this pitch], but the rest of it didn’t work, but we like this other thing and the two sit really nicely together.’ That was the process we used to get off of the blank page.”
Clearly this process worked, for not only is Anthem off the ground, they’re aiming for an early 2019 release date. And early views of the game show that it’s not just a visually stunning title, but one that clearly has depth. So regardless of how many exact pitches were combined to make this work, it might just work.
