Meanwhile, here's what's going on with Anthem 2.0
Pirates!
Remember Anthem? Well, progress on BioWare's back-to-the-drawing-board retooling of the game is still being made.
This week, we've got a glimpse at a new pirate faction coming to Anthem 2.0 via concept art published by Christian Dailey, studio director of BioWare Austin.
Dailey revealed the fresh faction, named Pirates of Blood Wind, via concept art of a grenadier with explosives strapped to their belt. Is that a robot, or someone in a spooky-looking mask?
Here's another piece of piratey art, showing one of their bases:
Lots of good discussion around our Pirate friends and new factions. We want to share more on factions and the part they play in the future. One common question though is "where do the Pirates live?" Here of course .... Happy Friday all. pic.twitter.com/dhfFvNXGdy
— Christian Dailey (@ChristianDailey) July 17, 2020
Writing on Twitter, Dailey mentioned work was ongoing to improve matchmaking and play with friends, with some kind of in-game LFG system for the game's fun Stronghold missions.
Work on fresh areas of the game's world is also underway. Here's another concept:
Is this less blurry? pic.twitter.com/LEecuLJrYV
— Christian Dailey (@ChristianDailey) July 24, 2020
And while there's absolutely no suggestion these will ever be more than internal pet projects, it was fun to find out that BioWare has battle royale and Battlefield-style experiments "floating round internally". Competitive PVP was not the studio's priority at present, Dailey was however clear to caution.
Ya know...we do game jams internally and try out fun and interesting different takes on some of our games. True story - we have a BR and Battlefield Anthem floating around internally. I always thought a Tribes style of PvP would be a fun take. Not the priority right now though.
— Christian Dailey (@ChristianDailey) July 21, 2020
BioWare Austin, the studio responsible for Star Wars: The Old Republic, has been tasked with relaunching Anthem at some point with a raft of much-needed improvements - though there's been no word on when this big 2.0 revival might see light of day.
Anthem was originally developed by BioWare Edmonton, the studio's mothership, which has now moved on to building the seemingly still far-off Dragon Age 4 and the even further off next new thing in the Mass Effect franchise.
