Anthem - EA’s next PR disaster after BF 5

[U 'MIRIN BRAH?]

let's all laugh at an industry that never learns anything
tee hee hee

It's more sad than anything, given the resources and tech we have now, gaming could be fucking insane. Instead we get jewed with nickel and dimey derivative garbage developed for poverty consoles.

 

[Done]

The thing to understand is that these companies and their shareholders are ignorant faggots who expect unsustainable, infinite growth.

They point to Fortnite and mobile and say 'do that' and they attempt it. The problem is you're starting to meet the point where you can't grow anymore. The market is becoming completely saturated and you're seeing smaller and smaller returns, which forces companies to do even worse practices which gets smaller returns, etc.

You're seeing this with a ton of AAA studios. Even take 2, whose RDR 2 sold amazing still got fucked because of unrealistic expectations, forcing the shit microtransaction system.

So you can't even make a decent game anymore unless you're making crazy money off microtransactions.

It's why I worry about CD Projekt Red, because they have shareholders too and they expect similar growth.

Eventually you're going to see a value collapse because these numbers are not sustainable. Growth will level off. There's only so many whales out there and we're seeing vast amounts of people concentrating towards one popular title. Its unsustainable

I think this is mostly because EA/Activision are publicly held, public shareholders tend to care more about the short-term vs long term results.

Private shareholders want growth too, but tend to look more at the long-term health of the company and it's revenues.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

No it's a great outcome. Remember when there were 2 WoW killing MMOs released a year and how shitty that was? Aren't we better off that the market stopped chasing that white whale?

That always happens when something is meant to be the "xx killer". Remember how many games that were going to be the Doom killer? What killed Doom: Duke3D and Quake, neither tried to be Doom.
Then came the Quake killers and what killed Quake? Half-Life, it didn't try to be Quake.
Then came all of the Halo killers.
It also happened with Gran Turismo, so many games leaned into being a GT killer and it didn't work. Forza worked because they didn't blindly chase the ghost of Gran Turismo, it was definitely inspired by it but it didn't try to be it so the end result is similar but it is its own thing at the same time.
Same thing with Saints Row, the first one tried to one-up San Andreas and it did not work. What worked? The Saint's Row sequels, that did things that separated them from GTA, while still being a GTA style game.

Anthem seems like BioWare's Destiny killer and by creating that kind of game they probably studied Destiny to the point where deviating from Bungie's template felt like they were going in the wrong direction, they don't want to accidentally make a non-Destiny game.
The Division could be explained as "it's like Destiny, but...", because The Division shares some aspects with Destiny(online open world but not an MMO, small teams, instanced missions, shooter) but is different in others, enough that it makes the two games distinct and different. Anthem can actually be described as "yeah it's like Destiny".

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

Wasn't the original Destiny a commercial failure? Why does it warrant copy cat killers?

 

[Ginger Piglet]

One to miss.

 

[Mr. A. L. Mao]

This is shaping up to be a beautiful disaster, and I'm so ready to watch the carnage that will soon unfold

SOON

Wasn't the original Destiny a commercial failure? Why does it warrant copy cat killers?

I believe the first one was pretty successful, the second one was a disaster at launch and only with major patches and new content has it recovered. However, I get the distinct impression that the awful launch turned away a large portion of the fanbase permanently.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

If the original Destiny did well why did a game that was supposed to have a decade of content planned get a sequel so soon? I got the impression Destiny 2 was supposed to be a quick fix.

 

[MrTroll]

If the original Destiny did well why did a game that was supposed to have a decade of content planned get a sequel so soon? I got the impression Destiny 2 was supposed to be a quick fix.

Probably because Activision's business model has no room whatsoever for a single game getting that much content for that long. You sell a game, support it just long enough to sustain interest until you can pump out a sequel in a year or two, and do the whole thing over again.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

This is shaping up to be a beautiful disaster, and I'm so ready to watch the carnage that will soon unfold

SOON
View attachment 668349

I believe the first one was pretty successful, the second one was a disaster at launch and only with major patches and new content has it recovered. However, I get the distinct impression that the awful launch turned away a large portion of the fanbase permanently.

Yep, that's Bioware's fate soon enough. Anthem will fail because all the competent writers and designers have fucked off from Bioware and because of the whole "get woke, go broke" thing, and EA will euthanase it. However that cartoon actually understates the developers that EA has plundered and killed. Origin ("Do it again, milord" - Ultima VII), Visceral, and Black Box (who did all the best Need for Speed games from HP2 to Carbon as "EA GAMES") can also go on that heap.

 

[Mr. A. L. Mao]

Assuming bungie wasn't outright lying, maybe they went a bit rogue with the "10 years of content" claim and Activision clued them in on how things were going to work? They severed their partnership with Activision last month, looks like they weren't making as much money as Activision wanted:

DESTINY 2 ISN'T PERFORMING AS WELL AS ACTIVISION WOULD LIKE

Yep, that's Bioware's fate soon enough. Anthem will fail because all the competent writers and designers have fucked off from Bioware and because of the whole "get woke, go broke" thing, and EA will euthanase it. However that cartoon actually understates the developers that EA has plundered and killed. Origin ("Do it again, milord" - Ultima VII), Visceral, and Black Box (who did all the best Need for Speed games from HP2 to Carbon as "EA GAMES") can also go on that heap.

Yeah, I'm still bitter about Visceral games and the Dead Space franchise.

 

[RoofGook]

Destiny's development was a fucking wreck. I remember reading that level designers would need to leave their workstations on overnight to load their editor and if it crashed they were screwed for that day. I think that 10 years of content claim was when they were thinking it would work out. It didn't and they've been scrambling since.

Anyway the dialogue in Anthem is shit. It has the issues that dialogue in most of the new 'nerd' franchises have in that the dialogue and interactions sound like they were written by someone who's never left an office environment in their life. It's like an HR manager wrote out their understanding of human interaction gleaned from Modern Family and Netflix sci-fi. Just belt-sanded dialogue and nu-character.

 

[RJ MacReady]

The game's matchmaking is completely unconstrained and new players are queuing straight into the final mission.

 

[Fuzhou]

If the original Destiny did well why did a game that was supposed to have a decade of content planned get a sequel so soon? I got the impression Destiny 2 was supposed to be a quick fix.

From what I heard, it was because the engine used (the fork that made Halo Reach) was becoming a massive pain to push live updates to.
So they couldn't really do much with the overworld without dropping a real patch every single time.

 

[Otis Boi]

Assuming bungie wasn't outright lying, maybe they went a bit rogue with the "10 years of content" claim and Activision clued them in on how things were going to work? They severed their partnership with Activision last month, looks like they weren't making as much money as Activision wanted:

If i remember correctly it was a misquote from a interview. They basically meant a "10 year Franchise" where every subsequent release was going to be an addtional story/add new content. I think there Original plan was to do something like Total Warwarhamer where each release was going to be a Upgrade in terms of Engine and Gameplay but later they would add all the old content to eventually merge it into one super-game. They just used a engine that wasn't the least bit flexible so that flew right out the door.

 

[Oh Shit I'm Sorry]

It's even fucking worse than Fallout 76. At least that didn't take 6 fucking years to make.

The game's matchmaking is completely unconstrained and new players are queuing straight into the final mission.

And you can't replay story missions without creating a brand new character from scratch.

 

[Secret Asshole]

I think this is mostly because EA/Activision are publicly held, public shareholders tend to care more about the short-term vs long term results.

Private shareholders want growth too, but tend to look more at the long-term health of the company and it's revenues.

Private shareholders also tend to be more personally invested with a company than public ones. A lot of times private shareholders start out as family friends or even family and then begin to circulate around. Typically there's more of an intimate, protective relationship there. That's why investors look long term. And typically why private companies don't burn themselves to get fast growth unlike publicly traded companies, because that can get them some quick cash and profit.

Private you can't do that and have to solicit for shares or ask around. If you're even open to it.

Yep, that's Bioware's fate soon enough. Anthem will fail because all the competent writers and designers have fucked off from Bioware and because of the whole "get woke, go broke" thing, and EA will euthanase it. However that cartoon actually understates the developers that EA has plundered and killed. Origin ("Do it again, milord" - Ultima VII), Visceral, and Black Box (who did all the best Need for Speed games from HP2 to Carbon as "EA GAMES") can also go on that heap.

Bioware is already dead. They couldn't afford this. They needed Anthem's story to be decent. Also taking a single player studio and forcing them to work on a multiplayer co-op game to save themselves is just asking for a disaster.

Their RPGs and stories have been on a rapid decline since ME 3. Anthem is not going to be able to compete with 'The Division 2' or any looter shooter on the market. EA got real fucking lucky with Apex Legends and its pricing is still total shit.

10 year franchise. Fuckers, you're lucky if Anthem lasts 6 months.

The game's matchmaking is completely unconstrained and new players are queuing straight into the final mission.

And you can't replay story missions without creating a brand new character from scratch.

That's the best part.

 

[RJ MacReady]

Fuckers, you're lucky if Anthem lasts 6 months.

With Apex Legends burying everything, The Division 2 releasing in a month and the launch drawing no hype I won't be shocked if we're done hearing about it 2 weeks from now, and then maybe once again at the end of March when EA's fiscal year ends.

What I'm intensely curious about is its sales. EA is expecting 6 million copies by the end of March.

 

[Secret Asshole]

With Apex Legends burying everything, The Division 2 releasing in a month and the launch drawing no hype I won't be shocked if we're done hearing about it 2 weeks from now, and then maybe once again at the end of March when EA's fiscal year ends.

What I'm intensely curious about is its sales. EA is expecting 6 million copies by the end of March.

Yeah, Apex is fucking going on a tear. EA is not going to invest much into Anthem with Apex just stomping shit. Assuming that Apex isn't just a fad and is here to stay.

I just laughed when I read this. 6 million sales? You fucking high? Are your executives buying tons of meth instead of coke with their bonuses because their brains are genuinely fucked up if they believe this. Its a great joke, really.

 

[Fuzhou]

Yeah, Apex is fucking going on a tear. EA is not going to invest much into Anthem with Apex just stomping shit. Assuming that Apex isn't just a fad and is here to stay.

If I was EA, I'd just be giving Respawn as much fucking money as I could.
The fact that Apex has been so good that a whole new audience started buying Titanfall 2 is a good sign that Apex might have some sort of staying power.

I'm also shocked that Respawn also has a fucking Star Wars game AND another Titanfall game as well slated for 2019.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

If i remember correctly it was a misquote from a interview. They basically meant a "10 year Franchise" where every subsequent release was going to be an addtional story/add new content. I think there Original plan was to do something like Total Warwarhamer where each release was going to be a Upgrade in terms of Engine and Gameplay but later they would add all the old content to eventually merge it into one super-game. They just used a engine that wasn't the least bit flexible so that flew right out the door.

Sounds plausible, but companies have touted long lifespans before and while they weren't lying, it just didn't mean what people thought it meant. I think Sony said before the release of the PS2 that they expected it to have a lifespan of 10-15 years or something like that. Wow that must be a powerful console, much hype, a must buy, but in actuality it was just their projection for how long they would manufactured it, that turned out to be 12 years.

With Destiny 1 I can totally believe that the servers could be around for a long time, maybe even a decade, it might not get new meaningful content but it could still be around.

And as other posters already said, the tools for it seemed like a nightmare that really hampered their ability to produce new content and make money. The game also cost A LOT of money to make/market, $500 million apparently, so being "financially successful" was a tall order.

That makes me wonder what Anthem cost.