Ex-BioWare dev says no-one there believes in 'BioWare magic', Anthem 2 'was really fun, but that is when EA canned it'
Last week saw the release of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and it didn't go too well. While the PCG review found the game had some redeeming features, technical issues on other platforms contributed to the game receiving some terrible review scores, to the extent the studio felt the need to issue an apology and some bug-squishing promises. It also led to a moment of developer solidarity on social media, as people who've worked on games that didn't come together shared their stories of such projects.
One particular story was shared at some length, and will make sad reading for any Iron Man fantasists out there. Developer Ian Saterdalen is currently a lead producer at Mythical Games, before which he worked in various roles at Crystal Dynamics, Blizzard, Riot, and then BioWare at the time of Anthem's extremely rushed development.
Anthem was once the next big thing from BioWare, or that's how it was sold by publisher EA anyway, but on launch felt unfinished, most notably lacking an endgame but with a host of other problems. BioWare went into triage mode on Anthem shortly afterwards, with the plan morphing into something called Anthem Next or Anthem 2, a full-scale rework of the game, which got well underway before EA pulled the plug.
«I learned a lot on this project,» said Saterdalen. «We knew it wasn't ready, as this game was literally created in 15 months. Which is unheard of for a game that scope. Anthem 2 would have been great!»
Many found the 15 months figure nigh-unbelievable. Saterdalen went on to clarify that lots of concept and world-building work was done before this period, but «I'm sure 18 months before ship is when the first level and Ranger Javelin were started. 15 months is when I started and the Ranger was
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