BioWare pens reply to their frustrated players, saying “Anthem is here to stay”

TronLight · Mar 14, 2019

deathsaber said:
Except of course you are completely wrong as they aren't selling expansions for this game- everyone gets them for free for the life of the product.

The only thing for sale, outside of the original game purchase, is optional currency to buy cosmetics- which actually might be the most perplexing thing in the game, to me- solely because you would expect since expansions aren't being sold, that the in -game store would be utterly LOADED with cosmetic armor pieces, unique colors, emotes, dances, avatars, avatar frames, and anything they might be able to sell.

But instead, there is barely anything, just a couple items available at a time, that only rotate, like every 3-4 days or something. and everyone pretty much can get anything they want from the tiny available selection thus far, from the free in-game currency right now, with lots of people just sitting on their ever growing stockpile free gold waiting for a worthwhile "purchase".

So, complain bout the game itself, bugs, perceived lack of endgame content/loot, whatever, but you absolutely can't complain about EA/Bioware being stungy or money grubbing "milking" fans for money, as this sure as hell didn't happen on this project.

Man, I didn't call your mom a whore, chill.

I was already corrected, and I admitted I was wrong. And say what you want, microtransaction, as little as there may be, are the definition of milking the userbase. Just 5 years ago they would have been free unlockables in the game with no option to pay real money for them.

edgefusion · Mar 14, 2019

I've played Anthem a ton, I really love what they got right but oh boy they got a lot wrong. I honestly don't see how they can turn this around without a FFXIV style reboot, delving into the systems at play it becomes clear that the game is very fundamentally broken almost across the board. My concern is BioWare are going to continue hobbling along patching this and that while breaking other things and never delivering on their initial vision. I want it to succeed, I really truly do, but I just can't see it.

Qwark · Mar 14, 2019

TronLight said:
Man, I didn't call your mom a whore, chill.

I was already corrected, and I admitted I was wrong. And say what you want, microtransaction, as little as there may be, are the definition of milking the userbase. Just 5 years ago they would have been free unlockables in the game with no option to pay real money for them.

I mean, how do you expect them to keep supporting an ongoing game like this without something. Cosmetics and in-game currency is about as fair as you can get, imo.

Razgriz-Specter · Mar 14, 2019

Hopefully if Bioware is shut down or parted out someone picks it back up.
Imagine Sony or Microsoft doing it right at the time EA loses exclusive use of the Star Wars license(most likely )
Knights of the Old Republic with Sony's AAA push, Jesus!

Socivol · Mar 14, 2019

edgefusion said:
I've played Anthem a ton, I really love what they got right but oh boy they got a lot wrong. I honestly don't see how they can turn this around without a FFXIV style reboot, delving into the systems at play it becomes clear that the game is very fundamentally broken almost across the board. My concern is BioWare are going to continue hobbling along patching this and that while breaking other things and never delivering on their initial vision. I want it to succeed, I really truly do, but I just can't see it.

Agreed with all of this. The other thing that's problematic is with every patch comes even more bugs for them. That doesn't give you much faith that they will get it right.

blamite · Mar 14, 2019

Is that a threat?

Allyougame · Mar 14, 2019

Because if this debacle has shown us anything, it's certainly how valuable the words and promises of Bioware as well as EA are.

Especially when they're being so transparent and not dishonest.

GalacticToast · Mar 14, 2019

Eon said:
Haha, a throwback that many of the youngsters won't ever be able to appreciate.

Lol. Okay gramps

TronLight · Mar 14, 2019

Qwark said:
I mean, how do you expect them to keep supporting an ongoing game like this without something. Cosmetics and in-game currency is about as fair as you can get, imo.

Personally I'll never see selling skins for real money as fair (this applies to every game, expect mayyyybe F2Ps). In a better game you could have had paid expansions to support it. The game is bad, so they had to make the expansions free otherwise people would have just dropped it. So the only way the can keep the game up is selling skins (for a bad game), and give people hope that they'll fix the mess they made. How is this a good situation for anyone (except MAYBE EA)?

Qwark · Mar 14, 2019

TronLight said:
Personally I'll never see selling skins for real money as fair (this applies to every game). In a better game you could have had paid expansions to support it. The game is bad, so they had to make the expansions free otherwise people would have just dropped it. So the only way the can keep the game up is selling skins (for a bad game), and give people hope that they'll fix the mess they made. How is this a good situation for anyone (except MAYBE EA)?

Sorry, but I disagree. Selling expansions splits the userbase. Optional cosmetics though, everybody still gets to play together and the developer profits. Everybody wins (assuming the game is good).

The_Land · Mar 14, 2019

Good luck with that Bioware when the other 2 looter shooters on the market literally do EVERYTHING better than your game

DontHateTheBacon · Mar 14, 2019

I'm glad they're super committed to fixing the game. You just hope EA is as well.

It's never good to have to make public statements like they've had to make over the past couple years with regards to their latest games.

TronLight · Mar 14, 2019

Qwark said:
Sorry, but I disagree. Selling expansions splits the userbase. Optional cosmetics though, everybody still gets to play together and the developer profits. Everybody wins (assuming the game is good).

If the game is good everyone is going to buy the expansion, if they want to keep playing. Personally, if I pay full price for the game, I'm not spending one extra euro on any skin. I'll gladly pay for an expasion, provided it has good content and I still want to play the game.

Qwark · Mar 14, 2019

TronLight said:
If the game is good everyone is going to buy the expansion, if they want to keep playing. Personally, if I pay full price for the game, I'm not spending one extra euro on any skin. I'll gladly pay for an expasion, provided it has good content and I still want to play the game.

That's the great thing, you don't have to :)
And you still get to experience all of the content.

TronLight · Mar 14, 2019

Qwark said:
That's the great thing, you don't have to :)
And you still get to experience all of the content.

If nobody buys the skins, like I would do, and the expansions is also free... How to they make money to make the expansions? It still requires someone to buy the skins. Unless the cost of the expasion is included in the base cost of the game... And in that case, why wasn't that content already IN the game?

Cynn · Mar 14, 2019

Anthem should have stayed in development until it was complete and launched as a mega AAA title for Xbox Next and PS5.

Qwark · Mar 14, 2019

TronLight said:
If nobody buys the skins, like I would do, and the expansions is also free... How to they make money to make the expansions? It still requires someone to buy the skins. Unless the cost of the expasion is included in the base cost of the game... And in that case, why wasn't that content already IN the game?

Why do you assume people aren't buying skins just because you aren't? We're derailing here.

Interficium · Mar 14, 2019

Peter said:
What's up with the obsession over failures and closures here?

You see this with the daily "biggest disappointment" "what game will bomb the hardest this year" and "what went wrong with X" threads on Era as well.

Part of me thinks it's just projection of the gamer tendency to be self-loathing and the weird internalization of games that people have on here where bad games are considered to be personal attacks on them, so they relish when the makers of those games are "punished"

Ralemont · Mar 14, 2019

TronLight said:
If nobody buys the skins, like I would do, and the expansions is also free... How to they make money to make the expansions? It still requires someone to buy the skins. Unless the cost of the expasion is included in the base cost of the game... And in that case, why wasn't that content already IN the game?

Because a great deal of people disagree with your stance that buying a game means they won't buy microtransactions.

Hawkeye 131 · Mar 14, 2019

Admittedly, I haven't played the 'final' game yet (played the Closed Alpha and Beta) but despite being a fan of BioWare since ME1 I don't have the time, the patience or the tolerance to wait 6-12 months for them to fix the game and really turnings around to point that satisfies the community. Having watched this game and the community's reception to it over the last few weeks I really feel like I dodged a bullet.

After dealing with all the nonsense Bungie put us through with Destiny 2 I just can't be bothered to give most developers the time of day.

Get it right the first time please.

Edit; As for BioWare, unless Anthem's community completely evaporates over the next little while I imagine they'll be fine. Maybe the game will take off again with some future DLC or expansions etc... I just don't have the patience to sit around and wait for them to fix it especially when there's so many other great games to play.

TronLight · Mar 14, 2019

Qwark said:
Why do you assume people aren't buying skins just because you don't? We're derailing here.

I'm not?

Ralemont said:
Because a great deal of people disagree with your stance that buying a game means they won't buy microtransactions.

And I think those people are very very wrong and are being exploited, but to each their own.

Qwark · Mar 14, 2019

TronLight said:
I'm not?

And I think those people are very very wrong and are being exploited, but to each their own.

What?

Your first sentence:

If nobody buys the skins, like I would do, and the expansions is also free.

Ok, you don't buy skins, but why do you think nobody else does?

Ralemont · Mar 14, 2019

TronLight said:
And I think those people are very very wrong and are being exploited, but to each their own.

You could easily say the same thing about mandatory expansions. Fact is continuous content has to be paid for somehow.

thediamondage · Mar 14, 2019

Wish them luck but they have a long and difficult road ahead of them. I finished the Anthem campaign and regretted playing the game, in maybe 15 hours of playing I had 1 hour of fun and mostly just "... this is so cliche and boring, why am I still playing".

By contrast been playing The Division 2 a few hours and having a blast, the mechanics of that game are just so much better and everything feels polished and like someone sat down and played for hours and hours tweaking things until it felt good. Anthem lacks that in almost everything. I give zero passes for new IP vs a sequel, Bioware has had plenty of experience in games and all the flaws of Anthem are really just basic fundamental stuff and not having to do with GAAS. Hell, that is an entirely different subject of how Anthem feels like a SP game that has coop very poorly layered on top of it and doesn't feel like an online game at all.

Deleted member 3010 · Mar 14, 2019

Yeah, I wish them good luck.

It's one thing to want to support the game, but if the player base evaporates, good luck getting resources from upper management.

I wish that Bioware succeeds, but Anthem seems already challenging to keep afloat, even more long term...

TronLight · Mar 14, 2019

Qwark said:
What?

Your first sentence:

Ok, you don't buy skins, but why do you think nobody else does?

I was speaking hypothetically.

Ralemont said:
You could easily say the same thing about mandatory expansions. Fact is continuous content has to be paid for somehow.

Give me an example of an expansion that has been mandatory to keep playing the game (seriously, never heard of one, I'm asking you). I'll pay for the content itself, if I want to partake in it. I mean by that logic, if I pay for mtxs, and then then I don't want to play the next expansion, I wasted my money. It's akin to paying for season pass not knowing what the expansions will be. Now this is turning into a big OT, probably not the thread to talk about this.

jviggy43 · Mar 14, 2019

Its not happening. They have a huge competitor releasing this week that does everything better, destiny is at its strongest with updates till coming, and borderlands 3 is going to be announced within this month. Not only will they need to take MONTHS to fix the technical and foundation problems with the game like the loot, they have to add meaningful content to the game as well. Why would anyone stick around for months waiting for this-just to get the game in the range of its competitors (let alone actually be as good) when they can just go get division right now and not have nearly any of those problems? In addition to the fact that nearly all coverage of this game is negative which is surely driving people away from checking it out. MAYBE, if they go free to play while doing this they stand a chance but there is no way this game at 60 dollars is going to survive. Especially with 2019 already being LOADED with incredible games to play and more to come.

Raptor · Mar 14, 2019

HellforLeather said:
Bioware -

"Anthem is here to stay"

EA -

Lmao.

Deleted member 8674 · Mar 14, 2019

Maybe Anthem 2 if they'll take the feedback seriously. Destiny was good after many expansions but I'll not wait for this one.

Nezacant · Mar 14, 2019

Zafir said:
Maybe they should fix the PC version if they want people to play it. I can't even play the damn thing still.

Of all the versions, the PC version plays the best. What issue are you having that's preventing you from playing? We've got some smart cookies on this forum that might be able to help.

Garlador · Mar 14, 2019

"We're here to stay" is actually something that makes me LESS confident, because it's not something you say when a game is doing well...

I do hope Bioware turns it around, but it's going to take a LONG time and LOTS of work. The game just isn't remotely close to being a finished product at this point, let alone hoping to go toe-to-toe with better GaaS entries.

Jadusable · Mar 14, 2019

I think people are underestimating just how bad having two AAA games in a row be complete critical disasters is. I can't remember any big studio that has had two back to back colossal bombs on a AAA scale/budget and came out unscathed. Maybe someone else can help me out here, but I can't think of a single one.

I admire the dev for being positive but again it's really EA's call and I think Bioware is going to be restructured for sure. I seriously expect Anthem's road map to be quietly modified - if they have already released it - and taper out by 2020. It would be an incredible plot twist if that didn't happen and a feel good story but I'm almost 100% certain that it will.

NeverWas · Mar 14, 2019

I hope they improve the game and it sticks around. Under the shallow missions and lackluster endgame, I find the core mechanics to be fun as hell.

Vincent Alexander · Mar 14, 2019

The only thing they need to do for me is create a Raid, or get details out on Cataclysm. I need to know why I should give a shit about farming. If there is no great end game content to repeat, then I really don't need or want better gear. Which is why I dropped the game the moment the credits rolled.

Frozen Viper · Mar 14, 2019

jviggy43 said:
Its not happening. They have a huge competitor releasing this week that does everything better, destiny is at its strongest with updates till coming, and borderlands 3 is going to be announced within this month. Not only will they need to take MONTHS to fix the technical and foundation problems with the game like the loot, they have to add meaningful content to the game as well. Why would anyone stick around for months waiting for this-just to get the game in the range of its competitors (let alone actually be as good) when they can just go get division right now and not have nearly any of those problems? In addition to the fact that nearly all coverage of this game is negative which is surely driving people away from checking it out. MAYBE, if they go free to play while doing this they stand a chance but there is no way this game at 60 dollars is going to survive. Especially with 2019 already being LOADED with incredible games to play and more to come.

My thoughts exactly. Good luck though Bioware, you've burned my good will twice, there won't be a third, but I hope they're able to recover and become more than a shadow of their past reputation.

Qwark · Mar 14, 2019

TronLight said:
I was speaking hypothetically.

Give me an example of an expansion that has been mandatory to keep playing the game (seriously, never heard of one, I'm asking you). I'll pay for the content itself, if I want to partake in it. I mean by that logic, if I pay for mtxs, and then then I don't want to play the next expansion, I wasted my money. It's akin to paying for season pass not knowing what the expansions will be. Now this is turning into a big OT, probably not the thread to talk about this.

I'm afraid I don't understand the point you're trying to make then. Some people will buy them, so they don't really care if you, specifically, don't.

As for your second question. Destiny locked a bunch of stuff behind The Taken King expansion. Stuff that you could do before it was released, you no longer could without the expansion.

And again, with the Curse of Osiris expansion for Destiny 2. You couldn't even get the platinum trophy for the game.

https://kotaku.com/destiny-the-taken-king-leaves-old-players-behind-1731460036
https://www.playstationlifestyle.ne...locked-by-expansion-curse-of-osiris-platinum/

That didn't go over very well so they fixed it.

Ralemont · Mar 14, 2019

TronLight said:
Give me an example of an expansion that has been mandatory to keep playing the game (seriously, never heard of one, I'm asking you). I'll pay for the content itself, if I want to partake in it. I mean by that logic, if I pay for mtxs, and then then I don't want to play the next expansion, I wasted my money. It's akin to paying for season pass not knowing what the expansions will be. Now this is turning into a big OT, probably not the thread to talk about this.

Except you are buying the skin. Like, yeah if you buy a skin and immediately stop playing then you've wasted your money, but that's obviously your own fault. If you buy the skin and use it and stop playing before the next content drop, then you've still used the skin.

As far as mandatory expansions, we'd have to be really pedantic to not consider something like Forsaken mandatory to Destiny 2. Not merely because of the substantial improvements it makes to the game as a whole, but also because you literally cannot keep progressing without it.

Similarly, in something like FFXIV, new expansions are mandatory to keep playing and progressing. Without it, it would be nearly impossible to keep playing with your friends if only because of the level cap difference.

nDesh · Mar 14, 2019

Disclaimer said:
I had to laugh out loud when one of the reddit OP's points was how forgiving BioWare's fan base is.

Outside of smaller communities that appreciate them (such as their LGBT fanbase), BioWare has one of the most toxic followings imaginable. Even on Era, even pre-Anthem, even pre-Andromeda, even pre-Inquisition, people have had gleeful schadenfreude toward BioWare.

It's because BioWare by 'casualizing' their games, betrayed the absolute worst fanbase in the gaming world: RPG fans

Legacy · Mar 14, 2019

HellforLeather said:
Bioware -

"Anthem is here to stay"

EA -

Haha

Ralemont · Mar 14, 2019

nDesh said:
It's because BioWare by 'casualizing' their games, betrayed the absolute worst fanbase in the gaming world: RPG fans

No lies detected. This is why you'll always get 5 different answers as to when "Biower dyed". First they "betrayed" the iso fans, then the RTwP fans, then single-player fans in general.

Yukinari · Mar 14, 2019

This thread is excellent timing considering i watched IHE's video for Anthem. I also recommend Skill Up's review too. Really hard to believe the same Bioware that made Mass Effect started to work on this right after ME3 came out.

Fixing the rate of drops or load screens are not enough in this jumbled mess.

Mona · Mar 14, 2019

if they do support it, it'll still always be a year behind where it should be at any given time

butman · Mar 14, 2019

"Is here to die"

CloseTalker · Mar 14, 2019

After reading that, I just came away thinking how sad it is that Community Managers usually get paid far less than devs. What a shitty, thankless job

Deleted member 23381 · Mar 14, 2019

A community rep has literally no say in what's here to stay or not.

Hey Please · Mar 14, 2019

I wish them luck but given the amateur hour issues coupled with it being released in what is essentially a beta stage for full price with a problem free mtx store, any reasonable person would doubt their ability to do a full 180 degrees with this game in a reasonable amount of time.

All that said, I do hope that Bioware sticks around to not only fix their Dream Game but also develop an actual good and finished game worthy of their reputation earned from before Mass Effect 3.. well Andromeda.

Perzeval · Mar 14, 2019

"The players are not"

ReginaldXIV · Mar 14, 2019

LinkStrikesBack said:
Welcome to games as a service, where for a publisher, lacking content at launch isn't a problem, it's the ideal.

I disagree, of the major GaaS games: Destiny and Destiny 2, despite the problems they had, were full games with stuff to work towards after the story was complete. The Division 2 has almost way too much content and seemed to learn from every mistake they had made from the original game and most of the resources were put in to what players will do at end game.

Anthem is truly the outlier, the game doesn't even have enough content to support the level grind to max level. I finished the story barely in to level 18 before uninstalling the game and I did as many side quests as I could do. Hell, the game doesn't even have enough MTX to fill their premium store properly. It's almost like this was originally designed as a single-player game and bolted all of the GaaS and multiplayer extremely late in to development.

Cels · Mar 14, 2019

darokaz didn't respond to the criticisms of loot point by point though, and from my understanding, that is one of the biggest reasons players feel like the game sucks, is the lack of cool loot to chase.

Legacy · Mar 14, 2019

Halation Ablation said:
A community rep has literally no say in what's here to stay or not.

This is actually true

BioWare pens reply to their frustrated players, saying “Anthem is here to stay”

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