It seems that BioWare, who are working on another game, will not be able to keep the Autumn release window – you can guess what the other project could be…

Kotaku reports based on one of its source that the 2018 Autumn release window mentioned during E3 was „never realistic.” At least six people who work on the game say that they are optimistic about Anthem, but they feel pressure from multiple directions.

Anthem has been in development since 2012, although it „has been in pre-production for a long time.” In 2014 and 2015, there were rumors about they couldn’t proceed much with the game’s creation due to the Frostbite engine (Electronic Arts, the publisher’s proprietary game engine). They started to ramp up development in 2017 in both the Austin, and the Edmonton studios, which changed Kotaku’s one source’s projections of Anthem from „this game is screwed” to „game development is hard.”

The problem here is that Electronic Arts will likely not allow BioWare to delay Anthem to after March 2019, and they also have to release a beta, make the game available on EA Access, as well as focus on the patches and updates post-launch, too. In short, the publisher might force the developer to rush the game out the door by the end of March in 2019. (They already saw this happen in 2017 with Mass Effect: Andromeda, whose developers, BioWare Montreal were degraded to a support studio…) They have the pressure on them due to the fiasco of Star Wars: Battlefront II, and „the studio could look very different in the future” if they fail and the Andromeda-story repeats. Regarding monetization, they also want to dodge Destiny 2’s faults (a lack of content, manipulating game mechanics, and exploitative loot boxes). They look closely at the two “2” games’ backlash.

Meanwhile, BioWare is also working on Dragon Age’s reboot, which, according to Kotaku’s sources, will have more „live” elements, while the focus will still be on the story and the characters. However, the team will not work on this game until Anthem is done – they want to (or they are only capable of?) work on just one title at a time. Mark Darrah, the franchise’s executive producer says on Twitter that he’s working on both games.

BioWare is in a tough situation.

Source: Kotaku

Halfway through my trip to Barcelona!
I’m here showing Anthem internally to EA. I am EP of BOTH DA and Anthem working with @Bio_Warner as Game Director
Anthem’s up next but there are people hard at work on both franchises and I look forward to sharing more in the future

— Mark Darrah (@BioMarkDarrah) 2018. január 24.