Since its rocky launch in February, BioWare’s online shooter Anthem has struggled to spin its story into a positive one, particularly in light of continued development difficulties and the departure of high-profile team members. However, despite persistent speculation that BioWare and publisher EA might quietly abandon the game, the developer is reportedly now looking to massively overhaul the experience ready for a future reboot.
According to a Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, plans to overhaul the troubled shooter have been in the works for some time. Eurogamer has previously heard similar word from its own sources.
Kotaku says the project is referred to as both “Anthem Next” and “Anthem 2.0”, and as those names suggest, the scope of BioWare’s intended plans are substantial, with the developer reportedly leaving little untouched. Changes to loot, quests, difficulty, progression, the world map, social elements, and possibly even the entire game structure have all been mooted.
According to one source, BioWare teams in both Austin and Edmonton have spent several months “just tearing [Anthem] down and figuring out what needed to change fundamentally (a lot).” Work on implementing those changes is said to have been ongoing for months too.