Yesterday, Kotaku published an explosive report about Anthem's troubled development and the general culture at BioWare. The report, citing 19 anonymous sources who either worked on Anthem or were "adjacent" to the project, cited issues such as a lack of a cohesive vision for what the game was, rushed development where production on the actual game lasted just six to nine months, low employee morale with many suffering from depression and anxiety, and more. BioWare has since issued a response to the Kotaku article, but this has only served to further stir the pot.

First, BioWare explains why it didn't initially respond to request for comment on the allegations in the article, which included a claim that the Challenges of the Legionnaires was just to timegate players.

 

"We chose not to comment or participate in this story because we felt there was an unfair focus on specific team members and leaders, who did their absolute best to bring this totally new idea to fans. We didn’t want to be part of something that was attempting to bring them down as individuals. We respect them all, and we built this game as a team."

Next, BioWare goes on to address the workplace culture that apparently drove at least one former employee to frequently lock themselves in a room to cry over the high stress environment. "The health and well-being of our team members is something we take very seriously," it said in its statement. BioWare also pointed out that its new leadership, such as the return of Casey of Hudson, has helped it improve its "studio culture and creative focus."

And finally, the BioWare post ends with what appears to be a swipe at the Kotaku article. "We don’t see the value in tearing down one another, or one another’s work. We don’t believe articles that do that are making our industry and craft better."

Kotaku's Jason Schreier, who put together the initial report on Anthem's troubled development, has pointed out that BioWare released the statement before anyone at the studio could have possibly had time to read his article. He also says that others have reached out to him to confirm the information in the article, and express disappointment that BioWare's response seems to indicate that there won't be a change at the company.

With Anthem having released to poor reviews and public opinion of the game worsening by the minute, this kind of press is the last thing that BioWare needs if it wants to maintain and build its audience. It doesn't help that the studio's response to Schreier's article didn't address some of the other concerns about the game, like it's supposedly rushed development, its lack of focus, or the E3 2017 demo being mostly fake.

Moving forward, it will be interesting to see what kind of impact this controversy has not just on the future of Anthem, but the game industry as a whole.

Anthem is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: BioWare