Developer BioWare promised ongoing engagement and communication with players when it came to Anthem. In reality, this hasn't quite been the case. Instead, the official Twitter page for Anthem has not seen an update in nearly a month.
The release of Anthem has been nothing short of a disaster for BioWare and publisher EA. BioWare jumped into the world of the loot shooter with its latest release, forgoing its usual forte of the single player RPG in favor of something more action-oriented with a multiplayer focus. However, with bundles of glitches and the worst reviews BioWare has ever seen, the reception of the title has been frosty at best.
After Anthem's messy launch, BioWare's community manager released a heartfelt response and it looked like BioWare was going to engage with the player base on an ongoing basis. However, it seems as though BioWare is remaining fairly quiet for now - at least when it comes to social media. As spotted by MP1ST, the official Anthem Twitter page has not seen an update since April 30, and even that was just a retweet of a post from the EA Help page as below.
It's not just Twitter, either. Over on Facebook, Anthem has not seen an update post since April 2, and Instagram hasn't had anything new since April 23. Given how many players are extremely dissatisfied with the game and how it's already losing players at a rapid rate, keeping up communication with the players across these widely-used channels could have been a strong statement that Anthem could be turned around. As it stands, Anthem already has a lower player count than Battlefield 1 with some players reporting that they are struggling to even find games, and it's hard to see how it could get any better now.
Part of the reason for the blackout may be the internal issues at BioWare. Last month, the chaotic development of Anthem was laid bare, and beyond the issues that the studio has had with the Frostbite engine it became apparent that there are deep rooted problems with crunch. BioWare has since promised that fixing these ethical problems is a top priority, which may explain the radio silence.
That doesn't do much for Anthem's players at the moment, though. It also begs the question of what will be showcased at E3 2019, as the game is still a serious mess and EA would do well to avoid revealing much of BioWare's next game, Dragon Age 4. Since BioWare has promised to keep Anthem as a priority over Dragon Age 4, it could send the wrong message to players if the Dragon Age sequel was showcased too heavily, but does Anthem have enough to share when the EA Play event comes around?
Source: MP1ST