Former BioWare Executive Producer Breaks Down 'What Really Happened' to Anthem

Last month, EA announced it would unopen down BioWare's Anthem connected January 12, 2026. And now, aft a rocky six years for the game, its enforcement shaper Mark Darrah has travel guardant to stock details connected precisely however Anthem came to be, and what went incorrect successful the process.

In portion 1 of a planned multi-part video series, Darrah spends an hr walking viewers done Anthem's improvement arsenic helium understands it from 2011 done the infinitesimal helium took implicit arsenic enforcement shaper successful 2017. Admittedly, his position isn't 100% complete, arsenic Darrah was not moving straight connected the crippled passim overmuch of this time. But arsenic a higher-up astatine BioWare and eventual enforcement producer, helium was nevertheless positioned to spot a batch much than most.

Darrah was lone enforcement shaper for the last 16 months of the game's development. Even so, helium opens the video by taking ownership of Anthem's failings and struggles:

"Some of this video is going to look similar I'm trying to displacement blasted around, but yet the work for this crippled does mostly remainder connected me," helium says. "I person a database of radical that I won't stock that I besides consciousness stock blasted connected this project. Almost everyone connected that database is much elder than me. The squad worked truly hard connected this game, the squad enactment a batch of fantabulous enactment connected this game, and determination are things that are astonishing successful this crippled adjacent now."

Darrah goes connected to locomotion done the archetypal six years of development, outlining a fig of pitfalls Anthem ran into on the way. He talks astir Anthem's archetypal conception astatine a clip wrong EA wherever its executives believed single-player games were nary longer desirable, leaving BioWare successful a challenging presumption arsenic an historically single-player-focused studio. BioWare pb Casey Hudson's aboriginal imaginativeness of Anthem, helium says, was to bash BioWare storytelling successful a unrecorded service, ever online format, and helium projected they travel up with a new, never-before-seen concern exemplary to bash it. That's however Anthem initially got momentum internally among EA's enforcement leadership. As Darrah puts it, "What if BioWare game, but it could bash FIFA numbers?"

However, aboriginal on, Anthem ran into occupation due to the fact that it struggled to get unit to really enactment connected it. At 1 point, BioWare workers were shown a presumption intended for executives that outlined the game's much unrecorded service-y vision, and this enactment galore developers disconnected the idea. Additionally, arsenic BioWare shipped Dragon Age: Inquisition, unit kept being moved to Mass Effect: Andromeda, leaving Anthem without the unit Hudson wanted.

Another occupation with Anthem highlighted by Darrah was the repeated shifting of what the crippled really was. While the archetypal transportation was to marque thing wholly unique, Darrah talks astir however hard that really is erstwhile you can't connection notation points to developers oregon explicate it to executives via acquainted touchstones. So implicit time, Anthem did really go much similar acquainted games specified arsenic Destiny and Borderlands.

And yet different issue, says Darrah, was the level of secrecy involved. While helium acknowledges it's important to support things locked up to debar leaks, there's a definite level to which helium believes it's bully to stock details much widely. In the aboriginal days, helium recalls Hudson would strategically stock definite elements of Anthem wrong the wider organization, which allowed him to make excitement and stitchery feedback. But erstwhile Hudson left, nary 1 stepped into that role, and Anthem became aggressively secretive. As a result, Darrah says, it was easier to hand-wave issues, tailor messaging to a precise tiny radical of radical who were much susceptible to groupthink.

Darrah besides tells a beauteous pointed communicative astir however being excessively circumstantial astir expectations excessively aboriginal connected tin pb to disaster. Here's his afloat recounting of wherefore Anthem didn't person six javelins erstwhile it launched:

In a beauteous aboriginal plan document, Anthem stated that it was going to person six javelins. Where did this fig travel from? It fundamentally got pulled retired of someone's ass. I conjecture to beryllium much fair, it was efficaciously breached down similar this: We're going to person light, medium, and dense javelins, truthful we're going to person 2 of each kind...and unluckily this number, six, got presented successful aboriginal 2017 to EA executives, that Anthem was going to person six javelins.Pretty adjacent to that presentation, the squad realized that it couldn't bash six javelins, for 2 superior reasons. One, due to the fact that it couldn't wholly fig retired however to differentiate six antithetic kinds of javelins, but besides due to the fact that it realized that it didn't person clip to marque six wholly antithetic archetypes of gameplay. So now, the squad is forced to contiguous that no, successful information they're going to person 4 javelins astatine launch, and adjacent though that six was based connected nothing, was based connected a fig we said due to the fact that it benignant of seemed beauteous logical astatine the time, but there's thing down that, became a root of immense unit and anxiousness from the executives.I wouldn't beryllium amazed to find retired that 1 of the reasons that everything came to a caput successful 2017, with the monolithic changes that occurred connected the task successful 2017, culminating successful maine taking implicit the project, I wouldn't beryllium amazed to larn that this was triggered by this alteration from six javelins to four. Again, that fig six was based connected nothing, but it was seen arsenic the squad falling apart.

Darrah goes connected to accidental that helium remembers 1 of the chopped javelins was a tanky paladin javelin that was much of a enactment class, portion the different was a medium-class that helium cannot retrieve astatine each — highlighting however nebulous the thought was to statesman with.

Toward the extremity of his video, Darrah talks astir a propulsion astatine EA successful 2016 for each its AAA franchises to beryllium "billion-dollar franchises", which would person progressive Dragon Age releasing a crippled each 2 years. This propulsion is besides what sealed Anthem's destiny arsenic a unrecorded work game.

Darrah besides cites 3 antithetic occasions wherever helium told enactment helium thought they should propulsion Anthem's merchandise day retired further, fto Anthem specify itself more, vessel Andromeda first, and past bring Andromeda radical implicit to decorativeness Anthem. All 3 times, helium says, helium was turned down.

You tin ticker Darrah's afloat video here. He says helium has astatine slightest a portion two, and possibly besides a portion 3 planned.

Anthem yet launched successful February of 2019 to middling reviews, with our ain reviewer giving it a 6.5/10 and criticizing the grindiness, deficiency of polish and variety, and mismatched story. It fell abbreviated of EA's income expectations, and EA ceased progressive improvement successful 2021. EA volition unopen the crippled down wholly connected January 12, 2026.

Rebekah Valentine is simply a elder newsman for IGN. You tin find her posting connected BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a communicative tip? Send it to [email protected].