This past weekend, the demo for BioWare’s upcoming title Anthem was released to everyone, and it seems that the studio is quite pleased with how the public preview turned out. In a recent blog post published by BioWare, the developer said that the demo "exceeded [its] expectations," and that "operationally, things were super smooth -- [its] war rooms were tranquil this weekend, which is exactly how [it] like[s] them."

BioWare also stated that the public demo received an “overwhelmingly positive” response from the community, and said that both demo weekends saw 40 million hours of play. Now that Anthem is only weeks away from release, BioWare has now shifted its focus to ensure that the February 22 launch will go as smoothly as possible.

The outcome of Anthem’s public demo is vastly different from the feedback garnered by the game’s VIP demo that ran from January 25-27. This particular preview was initially criticized after players reported several bugs and issues including a never-ending loading screen, problems arising from friend codes, and many others. To compensate for the frustrating experience that players had in the VIP demo, BioWare quickly issued an apology together with a gift to all VIP players.

Now, in preparation for the game’s launch, BioWare revealed last week that it has already addressed the bugs encountered by players during the demo period. In a community letter posted by Anthem’s head of live service Chad Roberson, it has been revealed that several changes will be implemented in the launch version of the game such as fixes for losing XP at the end of some expeditions, performance improvements, stability fixes, and many others.

Last week, we were able to snag an interview with BioWare’s Mark Darrah, who revealed details on what players can expect from Anthem such as its progression systems, future DLC, and many others. When asked what Anthem can offer that no other game can, Darrah said, “I think, really, it comes back to that flying aspect. The ability to move through the space, and integrate that seamlessly into your combat experience—I think it really is that. That’s the thing that makes Anthem special.”

With no more than fifteen days until launch, it is interesting to see how BioWare's Anthem will be received by the gaming community as a whole. Given the positive feedback from the recent public demo, it seems that the game is off to a good start, which may eventually be BioWare's redeeming title, after the not so successful release of titles such as Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Anthem is scheduled to launch on February 22, 2019, for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: BioWare