Anthem Live Services Might Not Release Until Post-Launch

While the controversy surrounding loot box systems in video games continue to swirl, Electronic Arts is prepping to launch its latest – and most anticipated – title, Anthem. At a quarterly financial briefing earlier this week, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen was asked a few questions regarding Anthem, and in his answers revealed that we might not be seeing paid additions to the game until after its launch.

During the briefing, Jorgensen stated (via Gamerant) that since Anthem is a brand new IP, Electronic Arts would be maintaining some conservative expectations for the game, especially since its slated to launch in the last month of the financial year. According to Jorgensen, the company still anticipates the game doing well, but added that it should do better into the next financial year “as we start rolling out the live services associated with that game.” That last comment is a bit of a revelation, as it sounds like the live services for the game won’t necessarily be tied to its launch.

If that’s the case, EA could simply be waiting to see what the best course of action is in terms of profitability, which would make sense. Either way, with the launch of Anthem not planned for nearly another way, we still have some time to go before more details come to light. With E3 only a month away, expect more information on this highly anticipated game to drop sooner rather than later. For more on the upcoming Anthem, check out below for what BioWare’s GM Casey Hudson had to say on the game’s story:

Most people know BioWare games as epic single-player RPGs with branching stories, where the player gets to shape the world through their dialogue choices. The first (and so far only) footage of Anthem showed a scripted, FPS mode, followed by some tasty third-person coop action. So yeah, we didn’t exactly see how the dialogue will work. In addition, we still have much to learn regarding the story structure. “Videogames are a unique medium,” Hudson stated on BioWare’s blog post. “The only thing that stays the same is that they are constantly evolving. Many of the things we love about games now were not possible a few years ago. And that’s one of the hardest things about making games – continuing to innovate and evolve, while staying true to expectations players have from previous experiences.”

Anthem is slated for launch sometime in early 2019 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

[Source: Gamerant]