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Anthem sales fail to meet expectations

iconmaster

Banned
I realize most of us expected this, but now we have confirmation from EA.

As part of EA's latest earnings report, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said, "The launch of Anthem did not meet our expectations." Back in February, just ahead of the game's release, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said the publisher expected the game to sell between 5-6 million units by the end of March.


Some noteworthy points on its digital performance:

Furthermore, EA also revealed that the Anthem digital sales made up more than its physical sales. Since digital sales largely cut out the retail store middleman, it could mean that EA still made more money from Anthem than expected, even if it didn’t ship quite as many units as it would have liked.


EA revealed that Anthem was its most successful digital game ever, selling more copies digitally than any other game in company history.


There's a bit of spin here. I take this to mean Anthem benefited from the general trend toward digital purchases, but these weren't enough to bring sales in line with EA's hopes for the title. "Most successful digital game ever" may or may not represent a high bar.
 
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sublimit

Banned
I wonder did EA asked Bioware to make this game or was it Bioware who proposed the game's concept and bussiness model (GAAS) to EA?
 
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ethomaz

Banned
B b b b ut some crazy guys here got mad because I said the game flopped at launch some time ago lol

It was clear.

It probably is far away to cover the budget to development and marketing.
 

Fbh

Member
Dragon Age 4 better blow everyone away, otherwise we may need to update the Papa EA meme.

IMO the only chance of this happening is if Jedi Fallen Order does REALLY well and it makes some EA executives see that in terms of revenue , image and franchise building a good SP game can be better than a bad GaaS
 

Fake

Member
tenor.gif
 

iconmaster

Banned
I don't know what Dragon Age 4 can even be at this point.

BioWare has got to demonstrate to EA that it can bring in the cash. A single-player RPG (and it won't be BioWare's best, they've been shedding talent) is not going to do it.
 

Airbus Jr

Banned
I played over 100 hours. The game is a mess apart from the combat

Sadly EA fucked BioWare over and BioWare kept on lying to the fans. So, this failure is deserved

I still have hope for Dragon Age 4...

But not to online game like this though..

Have no interest at all....

I need that good ol single player campaign to keep me interested

I hope Bioware dont fuck DA4 because thats probably the only chances they have to survive right now
 
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DAI Trespasser sets up the prospect for an amazing and unique Dragon Age 4. The game itself could be incredible thanks to its premise.


Dragon Age and Mass Effect are trilogies that deserve and would benefit from total remakes. Both trilogies would fit well in being brought into one new engine, and have standardized progression and best features of several games.


A remastered ME trilogy could have the itemization and loot drop from ME1, the combat and reloading from ME2, and improvements from ME3.

A new Dragon Age remastered could have the isometric combat from DA1, the city details and side stories from DA2 and the improvements from DA3.

Retool the trilogies in a new engine so everything fits into one cohesive game and release it for a new generation. I think a project like that would do a lot to restore peoples faith in these franchises.
 

Varteras

Gold Member
I played over 100 hours. The game is a mess apart from the combat

Sadly EA fucked BioWare over and BioWare kept on lying to the fans. So, this failure is deserved

I don't think EA had anything to do with this game's fuck up other than greenlighting the project and not being more strict on oversight. The game spent about 5 years in pre-production because Bioware's management wouldn't make any decisions and soaked up a paycheck without showing any results. The game didn't even actually exist until AFTER its E3 reveal in which they didn't even have a name for it until a week before. Aaryn Flynn was a terrible general manager for Bioware who allowed a lot of shit to go down on his watch. It's no coincidence that the timing of his departure and replacement by Casey Hudson, who left Bioware years earlier, lines up with Anthem finally being pulled out of pre-production and Mass Effect Andromeda being critically panned the same year. On top of stories being written about animosity between the three studios and a poisonous office culture. But I certainly agree that Bioware lied to its fans and that this failure is deserved.
 

Mista

Banned
I don't think EA had anything to do with this game's fuck up other than greenlighting the project and not being more strict on oversight. The game spent about 5 years in pre-production because Bioware's management wouldn't make any decisions and soaked up a paycheck without showing any results. The game didn't even actually exist until AFTER its E3 reveal in which they didn't even have a name for it until a week before. Aaryn Flynn was a terrible general manager for Bioware who allowed a lot of shit to go down on his watch. It's no coincidence that the timing of his departure and replacement by Casey Hudson, who left Bioware years earlier, lines up with Anthem finally being pulled out of pre-production and Mass Effect Andromeda being critically panned the same year. On top of stories being written about animosity between the three studios and a poisonous office culture. But I certainly agree that Bioware lied to its fans and that this failure is deserved.
Oh yes they had, big time. They fucking forced Frostbite on BioWare when clearly the engines wasn’t suiting the game. Not saying all the blame is on EA because BioWare fucked up too. So both of them are responsible for this garbage called Anthem
 

Varteras

Gold Member
Oh yes they had, big time. They fucking forced Frostbite on BioWare when clearly the engines wasn’t suiting the game. Not saying all the blame is on EA because BioWare fucked up too. So both of them are responsible for this garbage called Anthem

You don't spend 5 years in pre-production over an engine that was already used to make Dragon Age Inquisition. Which was well done and well received. Yes, it's a bad engine from most accounts. That's not why Anthem was a colossal failure.
 

Mista

Banned
You don't spend 5 years in pre-production over an engine that was already used to make Dragon Age Inquisition. Which was well done and well received. Yes, it's a bad engine from most accounts. That's not why Anthem was a colossal failure.
I was replying to your first line of the post.
 

thelastword

Banned
I mean everyone saw this coming, everyone,

How did they not see this coming?
Well after the reviews dropped, people had to readjust their sales expectations, but the hype with which Anthem was crowned was untold.... Don't know if it's because it was first shown at an MS conference, but even leading up to launch, people generally mocked any title launching at the same time as Anthem, with lots of cockiness in their words and tone......Yet the reality paints a different picture entirely....
 

ethomaz

Banned
Well after the reviews dropped, people had to readjust their sales expectations, but the hype with which Anthem was crowned was untold.... Don't know if it's because it was first shown at an MS conference, but even leading up to launch, people generally mocked any title launching at the same time as Anthem, with lots of cockiness in their words and tone......Yet the reality paints a different picture entirely....
It was supposed to be the Destiny killer by a lot of posters.

Ended it didn't learn nothing from Destiny's mistakes lol Anthem did all of them plus added some more to the mix :D
 
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nowhat

Member
Well after the reviews dropped, people had to readjust their sales expectations, but the hype with which Anthem was crowned was untold.... Don't know if it's because it was first shown at an MS conference, but even leading up to launch, people generally mocked any title launching at the same time as Anthem, with lots of cockiness in their words and tone......Yet the reality paints a different picture entirely....
MS has nothing to do with this. Also, I don't know what "people generally" you have been following, in my opinion people were cautiously optimistic at best (sure, a few vocal nutters had decided that this was going to be the bestest thing evah according to a clearly bullshot E3 clip and couldn't be swayed otherwise - but you get those for any game). After the betas, the expectations were lowered considerably.
 

Tesseract

Banned
imagine betting on the wrong horse like this, only to have apex be sent to die and become a mega success

sometimes when life gives you lemonade, you gotta slurp that shit up
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
Anybody here played this game?
I did. I played through the campaign and had a good time! But probably what EA and Bioware don't want to hear is that as soon as I completed the campaign, I turned it off and I haven't returned. I have absolutely zero interest in whatever endgame they currently have in there.

If they put out some more story content, I'll definitely return because I quite like the characters and world they've created.
 

Varteras

Gold Member
I was replying to your first line of the post.

The whole thing about EA forcing its devs to use Frostbite is certainly a thing to look at and criticize but calling it fucking them over is a stretch when we know they can make great games out of it. Any game that fails is not a result of that engine. It just makes the development process more of a headache. But you can't try to make a game with the size and scope of what they showed us in the reveal trailer within a year and a half. It would take a minimum of three years but probably close to five years. The production to pre-production ratio was backwards for this game. The engine really isn't to blame. Bioware's management is the culprit here. I can see where you feel EA choosing to force this engine on its devs is bad and I personally feel that developers should be free to use whatever engine they need to make their game the best it can be. I just don't think there is much ground to put this blame on EA when the engine was the very least of this game's problems and would have been, ultimately, a non-issue if Bioware didn't spend half a decade trying to figure out what it wanted to make.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
Not surprising, unfortunately.

My buddy and I have really enjoyed it, with well over 100 hours (no play counter on PS4) despite all the bugs (especially early on) and the limited end game content. The combat is fun as hell IMO, and I really enjoyed the campaign and side quests (probably over 30 hours on just those). So I've more than gotten my $60 worth personally as there aren't that many games I've put over 100 hours into over my 35ish years of gaming. I'd love to see it get fixed and get more content, but I doubt it will get more than token support until the end of the year and then have the plug pulled like they did with Mass Effect Andromeda.
 

mcz117chief

Member
This is there future

qxzcri8.jpg


*Click* (gun noise)
You know this meme is garbage, right? Those companies had serious issues before EA bought them and the only reason why they don't exist anymore is because of people jumping ship and with nobody in the "company" what would even be the reason for the company to exist? Bullfrog is a prime example, just look at Peter Molyneux's career and then tell me it was EA's fault that Bullfrog disbanded. The same thing is happening at Bioware with most of the people who made the good games are long gone, same as Westwood, Pandemic or Maxis.
 
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Boss Mog

Member
Are you telling me that people don't want to pay 60 bucks for a glitchy game with no content? Well, then I guess I know why Fallout 76 wasn't a hit either.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
This is depressing.

Like, all they have to do is stop being greedy. It's the source of most of their problems. Development suffers because of greed interfering with the artistic process. The Jason Schrier op-ed was so telling that there's clear evidence of what caused this fiasco.

I was so hyped for this game. I played it, and to this day I still have the 10 hour trial. That's how bad this game is. I have like 5 hours left on it. The little I played was enough to completely turn me off, especially after indulging myself in recaps from the E3 presentation and watching some streams from the developers.

Fuck man, somebody save Bioware.
 

Codes 208

Member
I could tell it was going to be flaming garbage just from the hour of a frustrating beta experience. Loadings screens galore, repetive missions, wonky movement, frequent crashes and disconnects, generic enemies.

It just left a terrible taste in my mouth. So far this gen the only decent game BioWare has made is Inquisition and even that felt like a far cry from the peak of what was mass effect 2.
 

mcz117chief

Member
Are you telling me that people don't want to pay 60 bucks for a glitchy game with no content? Well, then I guess I know why Fallout 76 wasn't a hit either.
I find it really interesting that two of the gaming history's biggest screw ups happened so close together. I can't remember the last time such a colossal failure took place.
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
The Old Republic - Austin
Andromeda - Montreal (now closed)
Anthem - Edmonton

All 3 Bioware studios officially have a bomb. Thats impressive.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Bioware didn't make any major changes because there was no pressure to make changes.
 

ultrazilla

Member
I had close to 50 hours into the game(full play through of the campaign and lots of "online" play) and I really *wanted* to like the game but in the end,
it ended up being a hollow, repetitive experience. I uninstalled it and haven't looked back.

The thing is, ANTHEM is a game that could be amazing as hell but was winged by EA's GaS philosophy while being built on the trouble plagued Frostbite.

This is *one* game that would benefit for a major redo next generation, built on a graphics engine that plays to the game's strengths while the development
team stomps out the game's weaknesses. The game simply needed more time(at least another year) and a different engine.

It's a cool IP that's been executed terribly.
 

TitusTroy

Member
aren't digital sales way more important then physical sales?...mostly everyone buys digital these days...so if it sold well through digital sales that means it's doing well...
 
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