Anthem was BioWare’s big attempt to enter the live-service shooter arena back in 2019, but it didn’t quite land as hoped. Mark Darrah, former BioWare executive producer, shared his thoughts on why the game struggled, pointing to a key issue: no one was clearly defining what Anthem was supposed to be. That lack of clarity made it hard for the team to build a cohesive vision.
Darrah explained in a video series called “What Really Happened to Anthem” that the game, originally codenamed Dylan, was developed before Destiny exploded onto the scene. Still, once Destiny and Borderlands gained popularity, Anthem started to resemble those games, a looter shooter with mech suits and flying mechanics.
Yet, the project was oddly resistant to openly comparing itself to those titles. Darrah said, “One of the things that seemed really strange was that the project didn’t seem willing to name its competitors.” He felt that by avoiding these comparisons, the team missed out on a shortcut to figuring out what Anthem needed to be. Instead, they had to experiment through many iterations without a clear target.
“By being willing to say ‘this part is like Destiny or this part is like Borderlands or this part is like Mass Effect’, you are starting the conversation in known territory. You can evolve away from that,” Darrah added. It’s a pretty practical point, why not start from something familiar, then tweak it? Guess they were hoping for something more original but ended up lost in the process.
Darrah hasn’t held back on sharing more about BioWare’s internal struggles during Anthem’s development. He’s talked before about how the game’s live-service approach affected other projects, like Dragon Age, and how EA’s focus on Anthem shifted attention away from their bigger RPGs.
Anthem will stop being playable early next year after years of low player counts and a rocky launch. Meanwhile, EA’s attempts to get back on track with Dragon Age: The Veilguard haven’t met sales expectations either, falling about 50% short according to recent reports. What’s your take on Anthem’s story? Do you think being more upfront about its inspirations would have helped? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
