Anthem sold bellow expectations, EA blames industry trends...

M76

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EA in their latest quarterly earnings call revealed that Anthem did not sell as expected, and they blame industry trends, and never even mention that they might be somehow culpable for the disappointment.

Their expectation was 5-6 million units sold, while they did not reveal actual number of sales, rumor has it they are a few million short of that.

They wanted to turn an offline story driven Bioware game into some hybrid that is both an offline game with 80 hours of content and a multiplayer game that can engage players for 200-300 hours. And they failed miserably.

Instead of looking at where they went wrong (How about not trying to ride two horses with one ass) they vow to continue down the same path (games as a service), thinking "soft launching" games will magically solve their issues with prematurely putting out one size fits all games.

And of course Apex Legends is coming to china, and to mobile! Aren't you happy?

Sources:

https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/07/ea-mum-on-apex-legends-and-anthem-in-solid-q4-earnings-report/
https://wccftech.com/ea-lessen-launch-woes-anthem-soft-launches/
 
Shock....horror....etc

Now I have to admit I enjoy the game, but it had a silly amount of bugs for a triple A title
 
I'm just surprised they didn't pull out the "piracy" or "people don't want single player offline games" excuses.

My excuse is I've boycotted EA titles for over a decade now and have no intention of changing that until they make some serious changes in how they operate.
 
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I wonder how bad sales wouldve been if it wasn't bundled with hardware. I fired it up a few weeks ago when some family came over so we had something to do. Playing through the strongholds is good fun. It's too bad you can complete all of them in <1 hour.
 
I wonder how bad sales wouldve been if it wasn't bundled with hardware. I fired it up a few weeks ago when some family came over so we had something to do. Playing through the strongholds is good fun. It's too bad you can complete all of them in <1 hour.
That probably kept it from being a total flop. Hope they learn this gaming as a service is not wanted. Release finished and completed games instead but I doubt it.
 
That probably kept it from being a total flop. Hope they learn this gaming as a service is not wanted. Release finished and completed games instead but I doubt it.
Learn? As I've said it in the opening post they already reaffirmed their commitment to games as a service.
 
I hope they can keep it going, it's fun. And one of the best looking games I ever played.

Wonder where all the "outraged" youtube clowns are heading as the drama slows down around Anthem? Gotta keep the clicks going.
 
It must be easy being an executive. Fuck up all you want and blame everyone else on the results, collect literally hundreds of millions of dollars tax free.
This is what always blew my mind about CEO, etc at the top of companies can literally make the dumbest decisions, and mismanage everything and drive a profitable company to the verge of bankruptcy and then get paid million to take a hike, go to the next company and do the same. And these are the best and brightest.
I shouldn't be surprised because when I worked for a national electronics company I saw them put people at the head of divisions that knew absolutely NOTHING about the electronics business or the markets. Because of that kind of BS, that company does not exist anymore.
 
It must be easy being an executive. Fuck up all you want and blame everyone else on the results, collect literally hundreds of millions of dollars tax free.
The public ownership model we have for corporations (ie the stock market) if fucking broken to the detriment of the economy. It's made corporations speculative ventures that yield a profit in the stock value as long as you convince the peanut gallery of investers and analysts you're doing the right thing. Most likely the company will suffer from bad decisions 2, 3, 4 or 5 years after those decisions are made. That's a lot of time to have multiple scapegoats arise to blame.
 
Industry trends?

Yeah, no. Well, unless the trend is to release shitty games.

You released a broke ass game that most people didn't find fun, and had little to no content to keep people playing.
 
The public ownership model we have for corporations (ie the stock market) if fucking broken to the detriment of the economy. It's made corporations speculative ventures that yield a profit in the stock value as long as you convince the peanut gallery of investers and analysts you're doing the right thing. Most likely the company will suffer from bad decisions 2, 3, 4 or 5 years after those decisions are made. That's a lot of time to have multiple scapegoats arise to blame.
Further it’s all about raising quarterly profits to the detriment of the long term growth.

God forbid one quarter profits lag while you reset your game development.

They can’t allow that for your reasons above.

It really is screwed.
 
I hope they can keep it going, it's fun. And one of the best looking games I ever played.

Wonder where all the "outraged" youtube clowns are heading as the drama slows down around Anthem? Gotta keep the clicks going.
People like you are the problem. You actually believe this game was acceptable at launch? It is still not after 3 months and won't be ever. This suppose to be what they call a triple AAA game. Triple AAA game means a huge market budget, full of micro transaction and shallow game play. It looks pretty so I guess that makes up for all the bugs and other short comings. Companies like EA need to go bankrupt. They only do damage to the gaming industry.
 
If Bioware/EA ruin Dragon Age with more games as a service bullshit I'm going to be livid.
 
EA in their latest quarterly earnings call revealed that Anthem did not sell as expected, and they blame industry trends, and never even mention that they might be somehow culpable for the disappointment.

Their expectation was 5-6 million units sold, while they did not reveal actual number of sales, rumor has it they are a few million short of that.

They wanted to turn an offline story driven Bioware game into some hybrid that is both an offline game with 80 hours of content and a multiplayer game that can engage players for 200-300 hours. And they failed miserably.

Instead of looking at where they went wrong (How about not trying to ride two horses with one ass) they vow to continue down the same path (games as a service), thinking "soft launching" games will magically solve their issues with prematurely putting out one size fits all games.

And of course Apex Legends is coming to china, and to mobile! Aren't you happy?

Sources:

https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/07/ea-mum-on-apex-legends-and-anthem-in-solid-q4-earnings-report/
https://wccftech.com/ea-lessen-launch-woes-anthem-soft-launches/

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what went wrong. People expected a cinematic single player story driven game from BioWare with co-op and multiplayer elements and got a bad Destiny clone with story telling that's arguably worse than that. Its got clunky, slow and generally unrewarding game play. It doesn't run all that well and its been plagued with technical issues from day one. The company's reputation combined with early footage of the game and claims made by the developer hyped Anthem to a point where expectations were naturally high. When EA allowed its customers and EA access members to play the "alpha" a few weeks out from the release date, people knew they had been taken for a ride. Not only were many of the touted features of the game absent, but the game's visuals and polish were way under par for something that was to launch in mere weeks from the supposed "alpha".

Of course, the problems that plagued this mess don't end there. The game had been delayed to remove the loot box system and replace it with an ultra greedy cash shop that charges $20 for shitty Javelin armor skins. I recall seeing one that was the default Javelin with a black and gold paint scheme and crotch curtains. Its a worse deal than horse armor. This long delay also gave BioWare the time it needed to polish the game and improve the overall quality of the product. Its obvious to anyone who's even watched a Youtube video of the game play that this didn't happen. The lack of care in the game's design, the lack of direction and project leadership as well as the blatant cash grab are the cherry on top of what's turned out to be another disaster for BioWare and EA. The game barely has an identity of its own and it accomplishes nothing well.

I know people hate Kotaku, but if you look at it, the article about Anthem's troubled development seems spot on.

If they blow Dragon Age, EA will undoubtedly ax the company.

Dragon Age III did pretty well as I recall. I think EA's hoping that BioWare can follow up on Dragon Age with another success. I know BioWare is talking about Mass Effect again, but I don't know if they'll live long enough to make another one.
 
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I watched a bunch of videos on this game and the #1 complaint was that they refused to fix or improve the loot system to give better rewards. As of now, you have to invest hundreds of hours to get decent gear or so I saw anyway. The game is all but dead. Maybe 150 viewers of Anthem on Twitch.
 
BioWare is dead. A zombie, even. You should have no expectation of them ever releasing an acceptable game again.

I unfortunately have to agree with this.

I really don't want to, but even if Bioware has ideas \ desire to right ship, EA will disregard and grind them into the ground.
 
I hope they can keep it going, it's fun. And one of the best looking games I ever played.

Wonder where all the "outraged" youtube clowns are heading as the drama slows down around Anthem? Gotta keep the clicks going.

In all honesty, I think the game has potential despite what a cluster fuck it is out of the gate. Speed up the game play, rebalance the weapons and armor abilities, adjust the loot systems, menus, and some other things and I think it can be a good game. I think this is a game that needed a solid five years of development that was again built in well under half that time. Its no different than Andromeda there. I don't care what the Youtube guys are saying. I played it and I'm not impressed with the product as of launch. I haven't played it since the recent patches, nor have I kept up with the fixes. I did hear (in passing) about some recent patch that broke a bunch of earlier fixes, which isn't good if true. But that's par for the course with BioWare. Long term SWTOR players will tell you that's how they roll and have for YEARS.

On a side note, the graphics have been massively downgraded from earlier footage shown of the game. So while it is indeed good looking, it doesn't look as good as we were led to believe.

People like you are the problem. You actually believe this game was acceptable at launch? It is still not after 3 months and won't be ever. This suppose to be what they call a triple AAA game. Triple AAA game means a huge market budget, full of micro transaction and shallow game play. It looks pretty so I guess that makes up for all the bugs and other short comings. Companies like EA need to go bankrupt. They only do damage to the gaming industry.

It clearly wasn't. If I hadn't had EA access, I never would have played the game after its "alpha." It was basically trash. There are good concepts there and some potential, but not in its current state.
 
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I unfortunately have to agree with this.

I really don't want to, but even if Bioware has ideas \ desire to right ship, EA will disregard and grind them into the ground.

Yep agreed. Once a dev gets bought by EA I just kinda expect them to go downhill. I've stopped supporting them many years ago.
 
EA is double dipping everywhere... making every items only (Or almost) obtainable thru micro transaction with very low odds anyway.
They ruined NHL HUT for me...

We need to ban those micro transactions or lock it to only cosmetics. It's out of control.
 
EA is double dipping everywhere... making every items only (Or almost) obtainable thru micro transaction with very low odds anyway.
They ruined NHL HUT for me...

We need to ban those micro transactions or lock it to only cosmetics. It's out of control.
They ruined all sports games under them. They all look like f2p mobile games now.
 
In all honesty, I think the game has potential despite what a cluster fuck it is out of the gate. Speed up the game play, rebalance the weapons and armor abilities, adjust the loot systems, menus, and some other things and I think it can be a good game. I think this is a game that needed a solid five years of development that was again built in well under half that time. Its no different than Andromeda there. I don't care what the Youtube guys are saying. I played it and I'm not impressed with the product as of launch. I haven't played it since the recent patches, nor have I kept up with the fixes. I did hear (in passing) about some recent patch that broke a bunch of earlier fixes, which isn't good if true. But that's par for the course with BioWare. Long term SWTOR players will tell you that's how they roll and have for YEARS.

On a side note, the graphics have been massively downgraded from earlier footage shown of the game. So while it is indeed good looking, it doesn't look as good as we were led to believe.



It clearly wasn't. If I hadn't had EA access, I never would have played the game after its "alpha." It was basically trash. There are good concepts there and some potential, but not in its current state.
Yes I agree the game had a cool concept and everything but they drop the ball big time with the game. It could of been a great game if given at least another year but all EA cares about is short term profits. It is like they hype up a game to sale a bunch of copies at launch and then just dump it when it fails. You get a huge bump in profits at the front end and don't have to spend any money to keep it going.
 
They could have added Iron Man suits to GTAV Online and get 80% of Anthem as a free download, or added them to Destiny and gotten 100% of the experience. Of course with Destiny it would have been a $40 DLC add-on called "THE WITCHMAKERS DEMON MECH LORE QUEST".....or something equally potatoheady, but hey....$20 is $20 rite......
 
Where EA/Bioware screwed up was basically splitting resources between Andromeda and Anthem. Had they focused all of Bioware's collective efforts on a single game over this time period, instead of both, we'd have an incredible game.

The problem is that they didn't, and it shows that both games just didn't have the development time they needed as they were working on two massive titles at the same time.
 
Anthem felt like a bunch of unfinished games they decided to smash together. The flying mechanic is the only thing they really nailed, and it's poorly implemented. It isn't unplayable or even an awful game, but it's a long way from being anywhere close to good. FWIW, I think Andromeda was a 10x better game and it was in development for about 1/4 of the time. They probably would have been better off releasing Anthem as a Mass Effect spin off and putting the entire castle portion of Anthem into another game.
 
Anthem felt like a bunch of unfinished games they decided to smash together. The flying mechanic is the only thing they really nailed, and it's poorly implemented. It isn't unplayable or even an awful game, but it's a long way from being anywhere close to good. FWIW, I think Andromeda was a 10x better game and it was in development for about 1/4 of the time. They probably would have been better off releasing Anthem as a Mass Effect spin off and putting the entire castle portion of Anthem into another game.

What's sad is there is a mod for Mass Effect Andromeda called the "Iron Man Mod" which actually works better than the flight in Anthem.
 
I really hope they sort Anthem out more, I have had a lot of fun with it but I crave more.... I can't blame people for not getting it though because it really doesn't have enough content and it was balanced badly and the loot system seemed like it was designed by 2 crack heads on a binger but the game is fun.
 
People like you are the problem. You actually believe this game was acceptable at launch? It is still not after 3 months and won't be ever. This suppose to be what they call a triple AAA game. Triple AAA game means a huge market budget, full of micro transaction and shallow game play. It looks pretty so I guess that makes up for all the bugs and other short comings. Companies like EA need to go bankrupt. They only do damage to the gaming industry.

I don't subscribe to your point of view here. Bioware with all of their shortcomings tried to get this done. They did not manage this in time forced to launch and who is to blame for that exactly?

I never met any game developers that take pride in shipping unfinished bugged games.

In the current media landscape things get hyped to soon too often afraid of missing the boat everyone has do their schedule according to what is best for exposure rather then a successful launch. That is in no way limited to just EA....
 
I don't subscribe to your point of view here. Bioware with all of their shortcomings tried to get this done. They did not manage this in time forced to launch and who is to blame for that exactly?

I never met any game developers that take pride in shipping unfinished bugged games.

In the current media landscape things get hyped to soon too often afraid of missing the boat everyone has do their schedule according to what is best for exposure rather then a successful launch. That is in no way limited to just EA....

Bioware is actually to blame here because they were the ones that sold EA their ability to tackle the development of two major AAA titles at the same time. Their mis-management of both projects is well documented as well.

EA isn't fully to blame here.
 
Bioware is actually to blame here because they were the ones that sold EA their ability to tackle the development of two major AAA titles at the same time. Their mis-management of both projects is well documented as well.

EA isn't fully to blame here.

So find me those game developers at Bioware that made the launch happen. You won't find any it is all management and that is done by EA same way it happened with SWTOR.
 
So find me those game developers at Bioware that made the launch happen. You won't find any it is all management and that is done by EA same way it happened with SWTOR.

EA wants a return on investment, they can't let the thing bake forever. As it was Bioware had ample time to develop the game but because of mis-management within Bioware itself they ended up in the position they were in. At a certain point a publisher has to set a hard date because they can't keep floating mis-management.
 
Kotaku wrote a really long article on how Anthem's development went awry: https://kotaku.com/how-biowares-anthem-went-wrong-1833731964
If it's even 2/3 true, it's pretty telling about how leadership and development are completely disconnected.
It makes it sound as though Dragon Age 3 development was a fucking disaster, yet I'd say the final game we got was fantastic.
 
Kotaku wrote a really long article on how Anthem's development went awry: https://kotaku.com/how-biowares-anthem-went-wrong-1833731964
If it's even 2/3 true, it's pretty telling about how leadership and development are completely disconnected.
It makes it sound as though Dragon Age 3 development was a fucking disaster, yet I'd say the final game we got was fantastic.
Fantastic? For all intents and purposes DA3 was a worse game than ME:A. It was MMO shallow. It wasn'r completely terrible, but it was a far cry even from DA2, which everyone hated cuz EA made it less RPG than Origins was.
 
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