There was nothing ‘VIP’ about Anthem’s demo weekend, will BioWare recover?
Electronic ArtsAnthem is BioWare’s largest priority at the moment and it’s fair to say that the game didn’t get off to the smoothest of starts with the VIP demo, but they do claim to be solving the problems found in testing. Will that be enough to keep people on board?
It’s always difficult for new games that get off on the wrong foot, as the developer has been building towards its release for quite some time – offering a number of gameplay livestreams and solid interaction with potential fanbase.
However, with so many issues springing up in Anthem’s VIP demo weekend causing frustration for people wanting to try it out, BioWare have responded promptly to reassure players that they will be resolved.
Anthem, the futuristic multiplayer developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts.While rumors had started to circulate that perhaps the server wasn’t prepared for the amount of players who wanted to play the VIP demo, they have since been dismissed.
“I want to dispel one comment we’ve seen: that we under-planned for server capacity. To ensure stability, we intended to manage our servers to match the player population as it grew” Chad Robertson, BioWare’s Head of Live Service, said in a blog post to the community.
He says that the developer has since resolved three unexpected issues with the game, which includes an investigation into platform connection problems, account flags preventing VIP players from accessing the demo and ‘Infinite loads’ – which was an issue they also spotted in internal testing.
While there is a chance that some unsatisfied players might not return to the game, or no longer think too highly of Anthem after playing the demo like popular streamer Shroud, BioWare is still working to resolve issues and make the full game’s experience better.
“We appreciate everyone’s patience and sincerely apologize for those who have had issues getting into the game” the blog post also states. “As a token of appreciation for your enthusiasm and any issues you encountered, we’re giving everyone who participated in the VIP demo weekend an additional new vinyl at launch.”
Moving forward, Robertson also revealed that their top priorities will be to investigate further login or entitlement problems, implement fixes to prevent ‘infinite loads’ from occurring in the future and improve server performance ahead of the game’s release in February.
This is a period of testing for the game and while the demo might not have passed with flying colors, fans will be expecting a lot more from the final version of Anthem. The developer will hope that not too many fans heads have turned after the troubled first glimpse of their newest title.