Mass Effect veteran says open-world bot flop Anthem gained momentum within EA because the pitch was "what if BioWare game but it could do FIFA numbers?"

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With Anthem finally due to fully shut down in January, it's an appropriate time not only to look back at what went wrong, but also, why was this thing even green lit in the first place? Thankfully, we have former BioWare executive producer and Mass Effect veteran Mark Darrah, who was with the company through Anthem's conception, development, and release, sharing his insights into the game's very beginnings.

In Part 1 of a new video series titled, 'What Really Happened to Anthem' (timestamped here), Darrah dives deep into the dynamics at BioWare in the early 2010s and the motivations for pitching Anthem, explaining that the Mass Effect leadership team had grown tired of working on just that series and wanted to do something new.