Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: An Anthem Using the Wrong Buttons
While the younger, more inexperienced team at Bioware Montreal worked on Mass Effect: Andromeda (which didn’t turn out so well), the main Bioware team has been out of action for a short while. The last title they finished was Dragon Age: Inquisition in late-2014, though a smaller team was assigned to work on its DLC throughout the early half of 2015. But rumors from reliable sources mentioned how they were working on a Destiny-like game, which explained their absence, as these kinds of multiplayer experiences are a significant development time investment.
Their new title was revealed at E3 2017 as Anthem, whose presentation was stunning, and showed why they needed so much time to work on it. The fake voice chat banter aside (this trend needs to stop at E3 presentations), it showed enough to even impress some who aren’t interested in multiplayer online co-op titles.
But one big question remained after the presentation and E3 itself: Will it look that good on every platform? The demo was played on either an Xbox One X or a PC with specs similar to one, and given how powerful the system is (explaining why its price is a whopping $499), it likely won’t look as good on a PlayStation 4, PS4 Pro, or normal XB1. So, EA and Bioware needed to show precisely what it will look like on those systems, especially on the weaker systems that most owners are still sticking to.
While the most critical question proposed above hasn’t been answered, a trailer popped up on the official PlayStation YouTube account presumably showing how it would look on a Pro. Those with no plans to immediately purchase an XBX were impressed this version looked identical. While this inevitably raised concerns about whether developers will have the opportunity to take full advantage of the XBX when one of the main competing systems is a little weaker, parity across two platforms is good.
Note my use of the word “presumably” in the last paragraph, as the uncertainty I insinuated towards led to an unfortunate conclusion: This was actually the same XBX footage shown at E3. It resembled authentic PS4 Pro footage at first glance, but a few people realized the PlayStation buttons were overlaying the Xbox buttons in the video — quite badly, at that. Blowing up the resolution of the video showed that the Xbox buttons can be seen blurred underneath the PS counterparts. That isn’t that rare of a practice for gameplay videos, but the job is never this hastily done. The video has since been removed from the channel, though neither EA nor Bioware have mentioned anything about it, and nor are they likely to. Xbox marketing manager Aaron Greenberg got a laugh out of it, however.
It’s possible they’re working on an updated version of the video where the overlaying can’t clearly be seen, but they should go for more than that. This is a good time to redo the demo from an alternate perspective, played on a PS4 Pro or a PC with similar specs. They could run through the same demo and areas, but with a different gameplay-related outcome. It would also be a good opportunity to remove those awful chat conversations. Don’t count on this happening, but it would be the best idea.
Despite this, it’s encouraging that they’re willing to show so much of Anthem despite it being over a year away from launch. Compare it to Andromeda, where EA was peculiarly stingy with the content they wanted to show to the public at E3 2016, despite it being less than a year away at that point. Development for this title must be going more smoothly, though you can pin that on the remaining veterans of the old Mass Effect games, Dragon Age games, and more being part of this game’s team. Its remaining development should ideally be as smooth.
It’s been established that Anthem will be similar to Destiny, but it should be part of their itinerary to avoid that title’s pitfall of being devoid of content at launch. But that will depend on whether EA gives the developers enough time to implement a significant amount of content. If not, they should have an explanation ready as to why it’s content-deprived just before its launch, and deliver some of that for free.
I hope EA goes with the plan of creating an alternate video to show off what other versions will resemble, but it could take a while if they don’t feel this issue needs immediate addressing. Anthem isn’t due for release until fall 2018, meaning EA may want to focus on other games coming in the near-future while saving distant titles like Anthem for tradeshow appearances like Gamescom — and maybe the two Comic-Cons.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
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Shit, they could have saved some cash and had me doctor it on MS Paint for’em.
It had to have taken someone like two minutes to do, and they probably thought no one would notice. Tsk tsk!