Anthem's VIP Demo last week wasn't exactly the smoothest experience for all involved thanks to a myriad of issues. But it has been full speed ahead for BioWare as they only had one week to prepare for the public demo, which will kick off on Friday, February 1.
Ahead of its launch tomorrow, BioWare's Chad Robertson, Head of Live Service, posted a community update to fans in which he expressed confidence in the changes made over the past week.
"This week has been focused on improving the player experience in the demo – that focus was based on our learnings and your feedback. For those of you that played last weekend, you should see significant improvement in multiple areas over last week," Robertson assured.
But while he is confident that last week's issues have been resolved, he acknowledged that recurring or new issues may pop up this weekend. He promised the team will be working around the clock to fix any problems that may arise.
One of those issues, he acknowledged, could be server capacity. BioWare was
blamed for "under-planning for server capacity" for last week's VIP demo, an accusation that Robertson immediately dismissed as false. However, as they open the game up to the general public, he admits that predicting the number of players is more difficult.
Our ongoing scale testing this week has gone well. We’re confident we are ready for the load we will see. Like last weekend, we will be prepared with more server capacity than we anticipate will be needed. However, predicting player numbers – particularly for a new game like Anthem in its first open public weekend – is very difficult. If more players decide to try the game than we anticipate, we also have systems in place to control entry rates of incoming players. This is to ensure players in the game are having uninterrupted fun and to give us time to increase capacity. If you encounter this situation, we hope you’ll be patient with us and try again later.
In addition to the fixes made for this weekend's open demo, BioWare has been preparing for Anthem's launch later this month. Unfortunately, a number of fixes they made did not make it into the demo weekends. The list includes:
-
Further performance Improvements
-
Additional stability fixes
-
Fixes to inscriptions showing up incorrectly
-
Fixes to inscriptions from other Javelins being chosen
-
Fixes to disappearing customization settings
-
Fixes to XP gain behavior
-
Audio improvements
-
Improvements to PC controls, including flight and aiming
-
A Social Hub: The Launch Bay
-
And a few thousand more (literally)…
On a world left unfinished by the gods, humanity struggles to survive in a savage environment. Equipped with incredible Javelin exosuits, a faction known as the Freelancers seeks to tip the balance in mankind’s favor.
Anthem's open demo will run from Friday, February 1, through Sunday, February 3. The game officially launches February 22, 2019, for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Early Access will begin on February 15 for Origin Access and EA Access members on PC and Xbox, respectively.