In a recent interview with Newsweek, Roberts, who is a veteran of the video game industry with three decades of experience, talked about the complexities of the criticisms Anthem is currently facing. He compared Anthem’s situation with that of No Man’s Sky, given that the latter also experienced backlash after the game was released without the features that were initially promised. Roberts said that BioWare must now reconcile its shortcomings by continuously improving the game and updating it to deliver a product that would meet the high standards of the community.
Roberts continued by saying that a good number of gamers do not understand the immense challenge of releasing a game, especially when player expectations are higher than what the developers can possibly do under certain circumstances. He explained that part of Anthem’s problem lies with gamer’s preconceived notion that “EA messes everything up.”
Given the bad press that Mass Effect: Andromeda received, Roberts said that some people believe that Anthem was rushed through development as well. Then, Kotaku’s Jason Schreier added fuel to the fire with an expository article claiming that Anthem was rushed through development.
Talking about Schreier’s article, to which BioWare also issued a response, Roberts wanted players to understand the fact that Kotaku was only able to talk to 19 people, which does not comprise the entirety of the Anthem team. Roberts believes that some people on the dev team at BioWare could have had a different experience than others, hinting at the fact that there may be people in Anthem’s development team that do not feel the negative perception of those people Kotaku talked to.
Cloud Imperium’s Director also highlighted the fact that gamers are often left out of the loop in a game’s development, which results in a lack of understanding of how video games are made. Roberts said that while Star Citizen is very much open as it continues to develop the game, the process is still a hit and miss that would often result in criticisms from the community and its backers. Nonetheless, Roberts said that the team is “genuinely trying to improve all the time,” and encourages BioWare to do the same and to keep working at it.
As for the troubled waters that Anthem is currently battling, Roberts believes that it all comes down to the “friction between the needs of a public company and development.” In the end, Roberts reflected on the current state of the industry and said that “it’s better than it used to be.” Looking at the bright side, Roberts is still hopeful that things would turn for the better, especially since Star Citizen is still under development.
Anthem is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Newsweek
