Anthem Losing Key Director
Anthem has gone through a rough development process. With Cataclysm being released, if late, the game was finally treading water. However, in a Twitter thread, the game’s Director Ben Irving announced he was leaving BioWare. Irving said he was leaving to join an undisclosed gaming company after 8 years with BioWare. Irving has worked on the Mass Effect trilogy as well as Star Wars: The Old Republic. While he seems to be leaving on good terms, his departure leaves the question of Anthem‘s future up in the air.
Anthem’s been plagued by slowly rolled out QoL updates as well as the late, but well-received, Cataclysm DLC. The Cataclysm update provided new enemies, new story missions, and much-needed end-game content. The dev team is picking up steam and there’s no way to tell how Irving leaving will affect the game in the coming months. There’s still no news on Act 2 or Act 3, but if Irving’s departure was being discussed internally, BioWare may have been waiting to elect a new director before deciding next steps for the game. Whatever the case, BioWare has done well with Cataclysm and there’s hope for the future.
In Irving’s thread, he stated that he will be leaving Anthem in the hands of Jesse Anderson and Andrew Johnson. Anderson and Johnson are both Community Leads and it’s unclear whether they’ve been promoted to the dev team or if Irving meant the community in good hands. One can only hope that a change in leadership continues to push Anthem in the right direction.
Have you been keeping up with Anthem? Are you enjoying Cataclysm or has its addition made you curious about the game? Let us know in the comments!