BioWare’s Anthem is coming 2019 as EA learns from past scheduling mistakes

Last week, reports began to speculate that BioWare’s Anthem wouldn’t launch until 2019 despite a previous ‘Fall 2018’ window of release. Instead of struggling to meet the original deadline, however, it seems that EA has learned from past scheduling controversies and is simply shifting the date forward to avoid conflict with its other titles.

EA’s ham-handed scheduling has caused problems for its titles in the past. The worst victim was undoubtedly Titanfall 2, a game that did almost everything right only to be punished at the finishing line by its own publisher.

Despite its developers, Respawn Entertainment, having listened to fans, added a story mode, brought it to all current platforms and improved most aspects of the game from the already-entertaining original, Titanfall 2 sold vastly short of expectations due to releasing in between Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and EA’s own Battlefield 1.

In its press statement (via Seeking Alpha), EA make sure to emphasise that while Anthem is being given more time in the oven, the company is “not looking at that as a delay.” Instead, “it’s tracking well on its development milestones,” and the company is “really confident of its ship date,” but makes mention of the next Battlefield entry as the core reason for shifting Anthem’s date.

“We are really excited by the way the next Battlefield is shaping up and it probably doesn't make sense to launch Anthem right up next to it. And when you think about Anthem as a brand new IP, we also believe it make sense to give it its own launch window so that we can give us a focus and attention that it deserves and give it some free air.”

KitGuru Says: This contrasts from previous reports that Anthem’s situation was a lot worse than it seemingly is, but it tracks well with EA’s history. To think that the company might actually be learning is a shocking one, but much needed after the many controversies its entered over the past two years. Are you okay with the extra wait for Anthem? How about EA’s reasoning?

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