Gaming

EA “pushes” it’s new online shooter Anthem into 2019

Was it a push or a delay?

by
Amanda Adams
February 1, 2018

Image: EA

BioWare’s new IP Anthem was supposed to be released Fall 2018, but EA announced today that they have other plans for the online shooter. The company has decided to push, not delay, Anthem into early 2019 while a new Battlefield will fill the Fall spot. DICE will be handling development for Battlefield, naturally.

Electronic Arts were clear that the “push” was not due to development, but was just a simple scheduling issue. EA CFO Blake Jorgensen told the Wall Street Journal that the company decided that Anthem would “get more attention if it came out in a quieter quarter.” Jorgensen also said that Anthem would do better if it launched with its own window instead of sharing it with other end-of-the-year titles.

It seems like EA has learned from Titanfall 2. If you don’t remember, Titanfall two was released in 2016 and was sandwiched between two other highly-anticipated games, Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Even though Titanfall 2 was a great shooter, and arguably better than Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, fans were swept away by the nostalgia of a WW1 shooter, and the futuristic technology in Infinite Warfare. I’m still not sure why EA thought tossing another shooter into the Fall 2016 rotation would be a good idea.

Not only is EA banking on Anthem being a blockbuster-hit, but so is Bioware. EA has been taking the heat for micro-transactions in Battlefront 2, and Bioware failed horribly with Mass Effect: Andromeda. Mass Effect: Andromeda flopped so hard that all support for the game was cut off a few months later. The schedule “push” makes sense, but I don’t see why EA didn’t catch this scheduling conflict in the first place.

Fall has historically been the hottest season for video games, and like clockwork, every year we see a new Call of Duty. Apparently, EA knew that Battlefield 1 was going to launch in the same time frame, so why? Was it a money grab? Was it hope that Call of Duty would flop? Who knows.

Anthem looks like a great game, but we have not seen much outside of the E3 2017 trailer. I want to see Anthem be a successful game as it looks entertaining as hell, but Bioware and EA’s track record is leading me to think otherwise. Hopefully, we will see something new at E3 this year.

What do you think of the push? You do believe EA and Bioware that it is a scheduling conflict? Let us know down below!