I have never personally played Anthem to know of how underwhelming it was at launch and apparently continues to be a year and a half later, but I've got to hand it to Bioware for their determination in trying to turn things around for their ailing IP. It's not only commendable, but also an uncommon example of a developer standing by its product in the face of critical and commercial failure. That said, it would appear as though the studio has their work cut out for them if they hope to win back the hearts of fans, and it's going to be quite some time before we see the fruits of their labor.
Earlier today, Bioware's Christian Dailey posted an announcement to the studio's blog, stating that preliminary work had begun and that they were currently exploring ideas that might make it into Anthem NEXT - the name for the game's eventual second coming. "The Anthem incubation team has kicked off and we are starting to validate our design hypotheses." writes Dialey. "Incubation is a term we use internally – it essentially means we are going back and experimenting/prototyping to improve on the areas where we believe we fell short and to leverage everything that you love currently about Anthem."
While it's been known for a while that Bioware was planning a revamp of Anthem, today marks the first time that anyone from the team working on it has opened up about the endeavor. According to Dailey, this seemingly massive undertaking is being executed by a team of around 30 people, and indicates that this will not be a short-term ordeal. "This is going to be a longer process. And yes, the team is small but the whole point of this is to take our time and go back to the drawing board. And a small team gives us the agility a larger one can’t afford."
Basically, no one really knows when Anthem 2.0 will be available, but interested parties might take comfort in knowing that project has officially begun.
