EA Announces the Next Battlefield as Anthem Gets Delayed to 2019
In the company’s financial earnings call, Electronic Arts has confirmed that it is pushing the release date of Anthem. The game will now miss a quarter and release in the company’s fourth financial quarter of 2018, sometime early in 2019.
CFO Blake Jorgensen clarified in a statement to Wall Street Journal that the new release date is not due to production delays, but a readjustment, as the publisher has now announced a new Battlefield in its place, to be released in October. EA hopes that by pushing Anthem to a “quieter quarter” the game “would get more attention”.
The news comes as a confirmation to Kotaku’s report last week, revealing the game has been pushed to 2019. Citing people close to the project, the report mentioned production was trailing behind schedule, with one unnamed employee calling the fall 2018 release date “unrealistic” from a development point of view. In the wake of disappointment surrounding Mass Effect Andromeda, the team at Bioware is feeling under pressure.
Announced during E3 2017, Anthem is an online multiplayer RPG set in a shared open-world, much like Destiny. Players assume the role of Freelancers, who use exosuits to explore the world that can be described as sci-fi meets primeval era. A demo was shown during Microsoft’s E3 briefing, check it out below.