Anthem
Yesterday, a tweet started to make the rounds that went a bit viral, showing that despite heading into the middle of February, if you log into Anthem right now the Christmas decorations for its “Icetide” event are still up in Fort Tarsis.
This was shared endlessly and turned into yet another meme that Anthem didn’t really need right now, with the implication being that BioWare has simply abandoned the game completely.
That’s…not what’s happening here.
There is a stated explanation for this from BioWare, which was pointed out to me after I tweeted a sad emoji about the lonely decorations.
BioWare did actually announce that they were extending the Icetide event into February, past when it was originally supposed to be over. This means the Icetide-based activities for it are sticking around for more farming, but it also means things like Christmas decorations staying up in February, which is…not a great look, considering the narrative currently surrounding Anthem.
Anthem has abandoned its larger “Act” updates in favor of seasonal content that so far, has mostly been based on holidays like Halloween or Christmas, though the season itself lasts several months. And when you do that, that’s when you can run into somewhat goofy situations like what we’re seeing here.
Anthem
The last we heard about longer term plans for Anthem was that EA and BioWare were determined not to give up on the game and/or series. There is reportedly going to be some sort of grand rework of Anthem planned, whether that’s a complete overhaul of the current game, some sort of massive DLC or patch, or even a full on Final Fantasy Reborn type reboot, that remains unclear.
We have heard nothing about what the plans are for that. In EA’s recent earnings call, the present state of Anthem (in terms of potential revenue) was not mentioned at all, even in passing, nor did they share anything about Anthem’s future with this reboot (they were silent on most BioWare projects, to be fair). So we really have no idea what’s coming and when it might get here. It’s going to be odd if it’s not until say, the next generation of consoles launch, as that would seem to be bad timing for a big reboot of a last-gen game. But who knows.
I am not convinced this grand Anthem rework will ever come to pass, but no, BioWare hasn’t just shut the lights off no matter what these lingering decorations may indicate. Still, funny to see.
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