Hoo boy. Anthem, Bioware’s new IP which is an online-only multiplayer looter-shooter, has its VIP Demo running this week for those that pre-ordered the game or has codes to it. The first day was just plagued with login issues, infinite loading loops and people not being able to play Anthem.
Thankfully, Bioware has been quick to issue updates on the problems and have communicated what is happening. As of today, various issues have been identified and either been fixed or mitigated in the short term.
Not long after, Bioware’s Head Of Live Service Chad Robertson chimed in as well. “The first day of our VIP demo weekend did not go exactly as we planned,” he admitted.
But he also went to clarify that the login issues are not the result of not enough servers. “I want to dispel one comment we’ve seen: that we under-planned for server capacity,” he said.
“To ensure stability, we intended to manage our servers to match the player population as it grew. Overall, we had excess capacity prepared for population increases, and continue to do so.”
However, his remarks also note that what they are doing right now is not enough. He outlined the core issues that will be worked on, including fixing server issues that are causing “rubber-banding”/lag and infinite loading bugs.
Everyone that participated in the VIP Demo gets a free vinyl, seen in the header image.
It’s hard not to be skeptic about an EA game having server issues. SimCity 2013 was poorly received due to the long server issues on launch. Need For Speed 2015 also suffered similar issues day-1 to the point that fans clamoured for its sequel to drop the online-only requirement, which did happen for Need For Speed Payback.
Still, at least Bioware is being upfront and communicating what’s happening to the public.
You can try out the demo of Anthem without needing to pre-order the game next week (February 1st-3rd ). Hopefully the kinks have been ironed out by then. Anthem will be out on February 22nd for the PS4, PC (Origin) and the Xbox One.
Source: Bioware