Last weekend’s VIP demo was a rocky start for Anthem, but BioWare is confident the demo’s woes will lead to a smooth experience later down the line.
Earlier today, BioWare’s Head of Live Service Chad Robertson thanked demo participants with a hearty and heartfelt blog post. He expressed gratitude for gamers who stuck with the demo until the end despite its initial connection issues.
While gamers got to try Anthem and hype themselves up for its looming release, the demo was more for the developers to discover and squash issues with the game. According to Robertson, gamers reported plenty of bugs and glitches the development team can and will iron out before the next test, including rubber-banding issues, validating Javelin unlocks, login bugs, and the infamous “infinite load” problem.
Even though the demo was restricted to EA/Origin Access subscribers and gamers who pre-ordered Anthem —and anyone who snagged a friend code— Robertson was impressed by the turnout. Apparently, enough players logged in over the 2.5 days worth of demo to accumulate a total playtime of nine-million hours. More importantly, gamers conquered one-million strongholds, and more concerning, killed two-million innocent “grabbits.” Although, if we’re being honest, BioWare placed an alien cow that stole players’ money whenever they turned around in Mass Effect, so Robertson can hardly blame gamers for being so paranoid about the grabbits.
While demo participants helped BioWare fix some issues, Robertson claims that thousands of other bugs will take a bit more time and won’t be solved by next week’s free demo. These include stability fixes and performance improvements, weapons with 0% infusion, lost XP, and party gathering issues.
Anthem is scheduled to launch February 22nd for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. If you missed the VIP demo, you will get another chance this weekend to try the game with the free demo. Just make sure you have an active Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus subscription if you plan to play the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 versions.
