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Anthem sales fail to meet expectations

ethomaz

Banned
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...
It had the best digital/physical ratio... not that it did sold well.

Overall sales were bad.
 
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chillinggamers_

Neo 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.

Fallout 76 was a massive failure due to horrific bugs and PR nightmares that were never seen before (at least to this degree) in the gaming industry. Anthem, is really generic but it doesn’t come close to the failure of Fallout 76.
 

Stuart360

Member
Played 40 hours and the game was 'ok'. A longer and deeper campaign, and a bit more variety, and i would of classed the game as a good solid game.
 

Solarstrike

Member
Where's the rest of the game? I did all the missions as well as Freehold and nothing else is appearing on the map. Talked to all the NPC's in the city. Still nothing to do. This game feels incomplete as if most of the developers were pulled last minute then EA came in and said "good enough, ship it!" then put everyone on the Dragon Age team. Wtf man, where's the content? I paid for the Legion of Dawn Edition and feel i got ripped off.
 

iconmaster

Banned
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...

It did better digitally than physically but still fell short overall.
 
I got a 100+ hours out of it. I have plenty of complaints but eh, I got more than enough play time out of it. I still launch it every now and then since I love the colossus and the only other remotely decent mecha action game in english this gen is Gundam Breaker 3. Thanks for milking that soulsborne formula From. It's not like I want a new Armored Core or anything..
 

EDMIX

Member
Someone on GAF said the long term plan will not be hurt by the low start lmao

They wouldn't be wrong either. This is talking about the SALES of the title, not the actual money the publisher made or seeks to make long term. So to them they might be ok with a meh start if they can recoup funds later on.

I'm not sure why you didn't keep reading either .. . "EA revealed that Anthem was its most successful digital game ever, selling more copies digitally than any other game in company history."

So if the game they pushed didn't meet what they expected, yet still breaks records digitally, I don't think they'd be that bad. They reached pretty high, didn't move the units they wanted, but still broke records. So sounds to me like the IP still has a future and they will seek to continue support long term. I'm pretty sure with this being online that is actually the point of their whole GAAS thing. So I'm not sure them moving low physical matters if they broke records digital and if the goal was to keep making money from it long term vs some short window just to argue a straw man narrative. 99% sure that whole GAAS thing is for them to make money over time, not simply from a few weeks of the games actual sales. You might be confusing it for like how a single player game releases where the publisher might not make much post launch, but sounds to me like the point was for EA to keep making money from those cosmetics.
 

EDMIX

Member
I have. I was excited for it. And while the combat felt great, the rest of the game was just a huge disappointment overall.

Agreed. The combat feels sooooo good, they have a long way to go but the bones of the IP are there. I feel over the years they can add a lot more to it along with a sequel to correct a lot of the issues (especially story, travel etc).

The Division 1 had a lot of issues that it fixed over the years and The Division 2 has corrected pretty much all of em.

Anthem out of the gate already seeks to not have any type of season pass or paid content that locks the community out of expansions and stuff.
So it has a lot going for it if they can fix many things.

Anthem 2 needs to be made on an engine the team feels comfortable with. I think they can do fine the second time around or even with this title, but EA needs to be honest with what this game is, what the team needs and what it can be with their support long term.
 

BunzLee

Member
Anthem 2 needs to be made on an engine the team feels comfortable with. I think they can do fine the second time around or even with this title, but EA needs to be honest with what this game is, what the team needs and what it can be with their support long term.

It will be really hard for EA to sell us Anthem 2 after what happened to the first one. I'm not sure I would buy it.
 

EDMIX

Member
It will be really hard for EA to sell us Anthem 2 after what happened to the first one. I'm not sure I would buy it.



The issues with Anthem 1, if they don't exist in Anthem 2 and are actually addressed with the first game down the road may gain them a following or return customers. To not buy a whole series based on how the first title launched is nonsensical and not really how most buy titles. It would be like not buying RE4 cause you disliked the gameplay in RE3 or not buying No Man Sky 2 cause you hated the first few months of No Man Sky 1 or not buying FFXVI (if it is to be an MMO) cause you didn't like the first run of FFXIV before Realm Reborn. What we know is most don't really buy games like this. You can see from COD3 to COD4 or GTAIV to GTAV etc that how a title used to be doesn't have much relevance if those issues are addressed with sequels. By that logic, very few should have bought Assassins Creed Origin after the whole Unity thing, yet Origins outsold Unity and Syndicate and Odyssey outsold Origins. If issues are addressed, it is feasible to see a return in sales or even sales go past the original titles.

" after what happened to the first one. I'm not sure I would buy it. " You buy based on assumption or based on what factually is being offered?

So I might not like a game, but if its sequel addresses the issues I didn't like, I'm more likely to buy it then if they just ignore the problem and don't correct the issues. Example, after RE5, I didn't buy RE6.....

Until they returned to the limited ammo, health, puzzles, weapons etc I didn't return. So I just don't buy games based on assumptions of what I think the next one would be like. By that logic I shouldn't buy Cyberpunk 2077 because of all the glitches and bugs at Witcher 3's launch. Seems a bit silly.
 

BunzLee

Member
The issues with Anthem 1, if they don't exist in Anthem 2 and are actually addressed with the first game down the road may gain them a following or return customers. To not buy a whole series based on how the first title launched is nonsensical and not really how most buy titles. It would be like not buying RE4 cause you disliked the gameplay in RE3 or not buying No Man Sky 2 cause you hated the first few months of No Man Sky 1 or not buying FFXVI (if it is to be an MMO) cause you didn't like the first run of FFXIV before Realm Reborn. What we know is most don't really buy games like this. You can see from COD3 to COD4 or GTAIV to GTAV etc that how a title used to be doesn't have much relevance if those issues are addressed with sequels. By that logic, very few should have bought Assassins Creed Origin after the whole Unity thing, yet Origins outsold Unity and Syndicate and Odyssey outsold Origins. If issues are addressed, it is feasible to see a return in sales or even sales go past the original titles.

" after what happened to the first one. I'm not sure I would buy it. " You buy based on assumption or based on what factually is being offered?

So I might not like a game, but if its sequel addresses the issues I didn't like, I'm more likely to buy it then if they just ignore the problem and don't correct the issues. Example, after RE5, I didn't buy RE6.....

Until they returned to the limited ammo, health, puzzles, weapons etc I didn't return. So I just don't buy games based on assumptions of what I think the next one would be like. By that logic I shouldn't buy Cyberpunk 2077 because of all the glitches and bugs at Witcher 3's launch. Seems a bit silly.

I totally get the point you're making, but for me, it has also to do with trust. I don't trust them to deliver a polished product, so unless they prove they're able to deliver, I will not buy into any hype they would try to generate for a new product. It's more or less the same reason I have stopped preordering or buying early access products. I am not saying that I will outright refuse to buy the game, it's just that I won't do so blindly as I have with Anthem. It would indeed be silly to refuse to buy a second installment to the series purely because the first one wasn't great - But I have bought Destiny 2, too, once I was convinced it was worth it.

I'm just weary of companies releasing unfinished products that had massive amounts of hype and promises that could not be fullfilled, if that makes sense. I might have worded that poorly, but it still would not be a day 1 purchase for me as it was with Anthem.
 

kevin_trinh

Member
They wouldn't be wrong either. This is talking about the SALES of the title, not the actual money the publisher made or seeks to make long term. So to them they might be ok with a meh start if they can recoup funds later on.

I'm not sure why you didn't keep reading either .. . "EA revealed that Anthem was its most successful digital game ever, selling more copies digitally than any other game in company history."

So if the game they pushed didn't meet what they expected, yet still breaks records digitally, I don't think they'd be that bad. They reached pretty high, didn't move the units they wanted, but still broke records. So sounds to me like the IP still has a future and they will seek to continue support long term. I'm pretty sure with this being online that is actually the point of their whole GAAS thing. So I'm not sure them moving low physical matters if they broke records digital and if the goal was to keep making money from it long term vs some short window just to argue a straw man narrative. 99% sure that whole GAAS thing is for them to make money over time, not simply from a few weeks of the games actual sales. You might be confusing it for like how a single player game releases where the publisher might not make much post launch, but sounds to me like the point was for EA to keep making money from those cosmetics.
lul, like i would belive EA in 2019. Yep Anthem has bright future, this future is death
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I wonder if the people responsible for negotiating FIFA's licensing fees with EA realize they can basically make EA pay anything at this point because the whole company is now based on FUT revenue.
 

EDMIX

Member
I totally get the point you're making, but for me, it has also to do with trust. I don't trust them to deliver a polished product, so unless they prove they're able to deliver, I will not buy into any hype they would try to generate for a new product. It's more or less the same reason I have stopped preordering or buying early access products. I am not saying that I will outright refuse to buy the game, it's just that I won't do so blindly as I have with Anthem. It would indeed be silly to refuse to buy a second installment to the series purely because the first one wasn't great - But I have bought Destiny 2, too, once I was convinced it was worth it.

I'm just weary of companies releasing unfinished products that had massive amounts of hype and promises that could not be fullfilled, if that makes sense. I might have worded that poorly, but it still would not be a day 1 purchase for me as it was with Anthem.

" unless they prove they're able to deliver " Ok, that still actually means subject to how Anthem turns out in its lifetime and how Anthem 2 turns out. Thats exactly my point.
 
All I really want is a huge, high quality, well-written single player rpg. If they want to throw on optional multiplayer, fine.

This should be a simple thing to understand, but devs/pubs want that GAAS money and are releasing both single player (Andromeda) and GAAS (Anthem) games before they are really done. It hurts sales in a variety of ways but especially because it conditions customers not to buy at launch for fear of bugs or lack of content.
 
It had the best digital/physical ratio... not that it did sold well.

Overall sales were bad.
its sold 3.4 million,that's not bad,other edevelopers wish for their games to sell that much, for EA is bad cause their expectations are until you reach the sky actually every big publisher these days expects to sell tens of millions copies,and 3.4 mill is a lot for his garbage
 

ethomaz

Banned
its sold 3.4 million,that's not bad,other edevelopers wish for their games to sell that much, for EA is bad cause their expectations are until you reach the sky actually every big publisher these days expects to sell tens of millions copies,and 3.4 mill is a lot for his garbage
It is terrible for a game with over $200m budget...

Developers wishes to break even and have profit after... so sales should be reviewed based on how much budget was used in the game.

3.4m is good for a lot of games but it is terrible for Destiny like games.

Anthem is huge flop.
 
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Mista

Banned
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...
We don’t get to decide that. Doing well is different from meeting the expectation they have set. I’m sure those greedy fuckers were expecting more than this
 
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ethomaz

Banned
We don’t get to decide that. Doing well is different from meeting the expectation they have set. I’m sure those greedy fuckers were expecting more than this
People mistook digital doing better than physical with the game selling well overall.
 
Fallout has such a built-in fan base.

Despite the valid criticism, FO76 does tick a lot of the boxes for those who love modern Fallout.
 

somerset

Member
Some bad cynical lowest common denominator pop songs will flop- some will be massive best sellers. The producers that make them are *not* about the music but the milking of the thickest part of their market.

Anthem is exactly this type of project from EA. Cynical crap targeted at idiots. And in this case the pop song didn't hit.

Of course a real trash pop song might be a day and a few pennies in the studio (and tens of millions in marketing). A game is an insane amount of work, time and money. Treating games like the worst pop music is so dumb, only EA could think it a sane strategy.

A trash pop song can be pre-tested with an audience for a very small spend, and if it doesn't take, dropped *before* the massive marketing spend. But when you've spent years and 100 million+ making your POS game, you are sh-t out of luck when it comes to options. You have to market that known turd, and that's more money straight down the drain.

Even the crooks at the top of EA know you shouldn't throw good money after bad- but at the same time they literally cannot afford to abandon Anthem either.

Think about the above, and understand why for EA lootboxes become a self-fullfilling prophecy.
 

Revas

Member
Some bad cynical lowest common denominator pop songs will flop- some will be massive best sellers. The producers that make them are *not* about the music but the milking of the thickest part of their market.

Anthem is exactly this type of project from EA. Cynical crap targeted at idiots. And in this case the pop song didn't hit.

Of course a real trash pop song might be a day and a few pennies in the studio (and tens of millions in marketing). A game is an insane amount of work, time and money. Treating games like the worst pop music is so dumb, only EA could think it a sane strategy.

A trash pop song can be pre-tested with an audience for a very small spend, and if it doesn't take, dropped *before* the massive marketing spend. But when you've spent years and 100 million+ making your POS game, you are sh-t out of luck when it comes to options. You have to market that known turd, and that's more money straight down the drain.

Even the crooks at the top of EA know you shouldn't throw good money after bad- but at the same time they literally cannot afford to abandon Anthem either.

Think about the above, and understand why for EA lootboxes become a self-fullfilling prophecy.


You can make many of these points about AAA games in general. Anthem is really half baked, EA and BW fucked it up but they're getting fucked in the end because they have to fix it.
 

HarryKS

Member
Started playing the game yesterday. It's nothing special, there's some good stuff in there but the text is tiny (even after picking the largest font) and everything looks so zoomed out. A game for ants.
 
Just about every AAA game “fails to reach expectations” makes me wonder what their expectations were in the first place
 
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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.
Don’t you find it funny that every company EA acquires turns to shit? People jump ship from the studios because working for EA is shit
 

mcz117chief

Member
Don’t you find it funny that every company EA acquires turns to shit? People jump ship from the studios because working for EA is shit
Like I said, many of those studios had issues even before they got acquired, there have been people who had great experiences as well as bad experiences with EA. The main reason why most of these companies failed under EA was because they had issues with clearly presenting their ideas to the investors, and their key members getting the old case of wanderlust and wanting to be independent again. Anthem is a clear example how Bioware fucked up royally and EA was extremely patient with them regardless.
 

Gavin Stevens

Formerly 'o'dium'
Sorry for the bump, my wife bought me this and I’m giving it a go. I didn’t want to make a new thread though...

Anyway, I’m playing on a LG OLED B7 and... is it just me or is this game REALLY bad with the colour banding? It’s so bad ya actually distracting. No other game/film has this issue at all. Ugh...
 

Fuz

Banned
Anthem is dead. BioWare too, probably.
sourceimage.jpg
 

nowhat

Member

If you're celebrating the death of Anthem, I'll toast with you.

If the death of BioWare... no, I cannot. I'll play the release of NWN when it hits consoles, and light a candle. There was a time when they were great (even if NWN wasn't their greatest work, just that I spent a fuckton of hours with it back in the day).
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
Sorry for the bump, my wife bought me this and I’m giving it a go. I didn’t want to make a new thread though...

Anyway, I’m playing on a LG OLED B7 and... is it just me or is this game REALLY bad with the colour banding? It’s so bad ya actually distracting. No other game/film has this issue at all. Ugh...

There is an OT for it, FYI. https://www.neogaf.com/threads/anthem-ot-fly-you-fools.1472363/page-24

I can't speak to your issue as I'm on a few year old 1080p TV. Looks fine there to me.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I uninstalled this from my PS4 when it kept crashing. I didn't get a refund. I'd rather be out the $65 than a bricked console. I thought it was fun for a while. I kinda got sick of the missions. I don't plan to play it, but I'm definitely not going back. If your game breaks a console then there's obviously something wrong with the way you make video games.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
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.

Probably a f2p mobile game with energy and a shit load of mtx at this point.
 
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*shocked pikachu meme

Tried it. Horrible. What is even worse is that they still managed to sell around 3 million copies of the game? Is that right?
 
it's quite simple: don't release a barebones, half-assed product. After reading what happened during development, Bioware needs to clean house at the management level.
 
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