Anthem is now in alpha
Anthem, BioWare's upcoming shared-world action-adventure, has hit a major development milestone.
BioWare announced that Anthem has reached its alpha stage, which typically means the game is content complete.
In a new blog post celebrating the news, BioWare general manager Casey Hudson wrote that the fun he's had playing Anthem with other players reminded him of his first time testing Baldur's Gate multiplayer many years ago.
"Being able to adventure together with your friends as a team of heroes, even if they are playing from another city or country, was a magical experience – and one that made a strong impression on me about our mission as a studio. We knew we had something special. Baldur’s Gate had fun gameplay, impressive visuals and rich storytelling with memorable characters.
"And beyond that, we were excited about its potential to bring players together. 20 years later, I’m having the exact same feeling," wrote Hudson.
What that means in practice is that BioWare is now focused almost entirely on fixing any remaining bugs, balance, tuning, and polishing the experience. This is still a lot of work, and Hudson stressed that BioWare wants to "get it right."
"These days the energy around the office feels a lot like it did back then on Baldur’s Gate, where the team is starting to get a sense of the magic they’ve created together and there’s a growing excitement about finally releasing it into the world," he added.
"There’s a ton of work ahead, but everyone knows what they need to do and is working with a level of passion and effort that’s truly inspiring."
We've seen a fair bit of Anthem over the past few months, and learned a lot about how it's going to handle story moments and multiplayer, and got confirmation that story DLCs will be free for all players.
For everything else we know, hit up the big Anthem page.
Anthem is due out February 22 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Pre-order players and EA/Origin Access members are getting a demo on February 1.