Anthem failed at its launch in 2019, and early next year, will no longer be playable. Now, in a lengthy YouTube video, former BioWare executive producer Mark Darrah discussed the game’s origins and shaky beginnings. He explained that Mass Effect director Casey Hudson wasn’t just proposing a new game, but a new vision for BioWare.
“What Casey was pitching to EA is BioWare as something new,” said Darrah in the video (via GameSpot). “It’s BioWare as something new. It’s BioWare telling stories, but doing it in a live service, always-online, a completely new business model, a totally new way of thinking about how we tell stories.”
According to Darrah, much of Hudson’s initial vision didn’t make it into the final product, but it’s “the reason Anthem managed to generate so much momentum within the organization, because what Casey was essentially proposing was: ‘What if it’s a BioWare game, but it could hit FIFA-like numbers?’”.
The former executive producer went on to say that Hudson and his team weren’t just proposing a game, but a new BioWare. He talked about a video he believes was “intended to be shown to executives,” which was “presented very similar to, if you imagine the typical initial vision video for a sophisticated tech company, it’s very like that video.”
Darrah continued: “In this video, however, it talks about how much of what BioWare has done in the past is antiquated and its time is over, and that BioWare needs to change and be something different to reach what I believe is the original target audience. This is exactly what they wanted to hear. Executives wanted to hear that BioWare believes it needs to change, that BioWare needs to be something different. That’s what they wanted to hear at this time.”
Anthem was pitched as a game that could generate revenue continuously during a time when online live service games were gaining traction, but ultimately struggled to materialize. Hudson himself left BioWare during development, which Darrah pointed to as a major reason the game struggled to find an identity.
Darrah also stated he frequently argued to delay Anthem for more time, even suggesting that Dragon Age 4 be released first. This obviously didn’t happen, with Dragon Age: The Veilguard only launching last year.
