Bioware is a classic case of how the mighty has fallen. Before, it was a juggernaut with games and franchises like Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, the Mass Effect trilogy and the Dragon Age titles. The developer’s fall from grace began with 2017’s Mass Effect Andromeda, the last straw of which was 2019’s Anthem.

Anthem was dead on arrival last year, criticized for its shallow and repetitive gameplay with none of the developer’s once trademark genius for epic RPG games. One year from its initial launch, Bioware has announced that they are currently hard at work ‘redesigning’ or ‘reinventing’ the game, planning for a ‘relaunch’ in an attempt to emulate Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 14.

According to the blog post, the developer said that they will be:

“…focusing on a longer-term redesign of the experience, specifically working to reinvent the core gameplay loop with clear goals, motivating challenges and progression with meaningful rewards

– while preserving the fun of flying and fighting in a vast science-fantasy setting.”

For this reinvention of Anthem to happen, Bioware admits that it will be stopping new seasonal content for now, though players can still look forward to events, store refreshes, and the recycling of past seasonal content.

Unfortunately, Bioware doesn’t even give a vague release window for this Anthem redesign, but they do mention that the project will probably take “months”. A major overhaul of a game like will realistically take a long time, especially if the studio is still working on other games at the same time.

I predict that the earliest (and best) potential release window for this redesigned Anthem is near (either before or after) the official launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X. By doing that, Bioware can capitalize and take advantage of the hype surrounding the next-gen consoles.

What Now?

However, the question remains: Does anyone even still care about Anthem at this point? The game (and Mass Effect Andromeda) made gamers lose faith in the developer, and that’s not going to change with a redesign or complete overhaul. It’s essentially a waste of precious time and resources at this point.

They would be better off just working on an entirely new game which gamers are actually passionate about, like a new entry in the Dragon Age franchise (which they’ve actually been teasing since 2018).

Other smaller developers are even picking up the slack left behind by Bioware, like Spiders with GreedFall (check out my full review of that game here). If they’re not careful, Bioware’s crumbling legacy will be all that’s left of the once-great developer.