The declining player base of Anthem is causing problems for those players who continue to stick around to play the game. Although BioWare seems to be treating the release of Anthem as early access (meaning that new content will get delayed to fix issues), players have been frustrated since day one due to an overwhelming amount of bugs and glitches, as well as not seeing content that was initially promised.
On the surface, Anthem seemed promising. The game revolved around a world abandoned by gods, who left behind their tools of creation, including the Anthem of Creation. Players put on exosuits called Javelins, which give them abilities to traverse that world in an attempt at keeping the Anthem out of the hands of the Dominion, who would use it for evil. However, after the release of the title, players found nothing but disappointment, with many not bothering to stick around to keep playing. A recent survey showed that nearly half of its players had already decided to leave the game with others stating that they planned to leave soon.
The massive departure of players creates a real problem for Anthem. According to Forbes, the declining player base is making matchmaking for missions all but impossible for many players. In games such as Anthem, players must team up with others for specific tasks, but when the pool of players continues to decrease, that makes it harder to get full teams, especially when facing more of the high level missions. This creates a cycle of frustration for existing players, who might also decide to leave the game, meaning the player pool will continue to grow smaller.
Many of the problems with the game revolve around loot, as well as continuing bugs and glitches. One particular bug on the PlayStation 4 kept restarting consoles. Although BioWare fixed that issue, more continue to pop up in its place. That means the studio is spending most of its time just trying to fix problems, rather than working on adding additional content for those players who stick around.
At this point, many players are probably right in just giving up altogether. Although BioWare continues to promise that fixing Anthem’s problems is a priority, many players will keep leaving the game, leaving other players in a lurch when they need to team up for missions. Unfortunately, Anthem has done severe damage to BioWare’s once-stellar reputation with players. One can only hope that the studio can earn back their trust by continuing to address Anthem’s issues and fixing them. However, it remains to be seen if Anthem will even have any players left by then.
More: Anthem Needs To Learn From FFXIV And Tear It All Down
Source: Forbes
