Game developers always want to find ways for players to spend their money on the game the most. One of the recent trends that they often use is to allow players to access the game earlier than usual. This business strategy has been successfully adopted by Electronic Arts, 2K and Ubisoft.
Players who want access to the game earlier than the official launch date, they have to spend a lot more money and sometimes have to register for tracking service. The fact that many previous players will bring more advantages to game producers in promoting. Typically, they can use the number of people to register to play in advance to demonstrate the attractiveness of the game, post comment videos and make the game be in everyone conversation in order to get more attention.
Electronic Arts expects important greetings, videos about games, and an enthusiastic atmosphere when they release Anthem. Anthem is BioWare's latest game and is scheduled for an official launch date on February 22. However, some people were able to enjoy the entire game on Xbox and PC a week earlier. The strategy for players with a chance to play first will often be more successful because it attracts many other players, but sometimes it has the opposite effect.
The first cause stems from "the grid", it does not accomplish well its visual interpretation task for Anthem players on platforms.
Opinions about the grid and the timing of early Anthem play have caused a stir on forums and social media. Many comments have criticized and ridiculed Anthem's chart. The plan allows people to enjoy the previous game to make people talk to each other about the game's appeal, which has now become a platform for people to criticize. Some respondents on @EAHelp's original post, suggest that spreadsheet-style charts are disappointing enough to make people not spend money to buy this game. However, the market is full of different tactics and strategies, and we cannot know, do these individuals really want to buy and experience Anthem like real gamers.
According to Tom Phillips from Eurogamer, it has probably been much better if the grid is much less complicated. However, its complexity has really become a problem for players and the company itself.
EA tries to cram too much information into one place, making them confusing and counterproductive. Their grid includes two different PC release dates, two weekend demo days, earlier play time with 2 other subscriptions, and the more expensive version of Legion of Dawn. We also understand the role of a grid to call for more gamers to pay to increase the game experience through more expensive versions and participate in the subscription program.
However, on the first test week Anthem had a technical error when it was in the grid. It was overcome by both BioWare and EA for the demo for the 2nd weekend. Besides, those who brought the original demo to the company will be rewarded with free skins.
Since then, everything has been going well until the day Anthem game was released on February 15th. Although it has not yet been officially released, EA has had a problem causing them to have a headache. Many players and commentators are not really interested and love this game after a period of previous experience.
Many criticisms were raised, including the main elements in the game that were not well-guided and specific to the players. Download time of the game is quite slow and makes the player's experience interrupted. In addition, the messages inform the repair version of the error on the first day are sent to the player continuously, although the game has been fixed and played in many days.
But the one who made criticism more and more serious was Microsoft Vice President Mike Ybarra. A critic on Twitter said that Anthem developers have built very poorly its explanation system and Ybarra has countered it. He thinks that players can be allowed to experience games on Xbox and PC before the official launch date does not mean they have the right to criticize the game's errors because it has not yet been released. In fact, Microsoft's Xbox takes on a part of marketing for this game as EA Access's subscription program is only supported on Xbox One. However, for a giant tech company like Microsoft, the cooperation between Microsoft and EA is probably not so serious that the vice president must speak up.
The tactic of allowing players to experience Anthem early seems to be bringing in poor results. Critics and ambassadors in the community did not bring excitement to attract more players, in addition, the comments and spreads on social networks about the game are actually bringing significantly negative influences to pre-order sales and people's awareness of the game.
As expected of EA, there will be 5 to 6 million copies of Anthem sold before March 31. The company is about to get out of a difficult period when sales of Battlefield 5 and Command and Conquer Rivals are not very good, thanks to the great success of Apex Legends. So Anthem will have more work to do to reach to the Apex Legends position right now. Most investors will look at the sales of the product at the time of the launch to decide on the investment so EA needs to create a successful launch with this game.
We also understand that in the gaming services market, there is always an opportunity for developers to redeem mistakes and quite a few companies have caught this opportunity successfully. Typically, Bungie has always tried to improve two parts of Destiny and both have achieved a lot of success since their debut. The Division and Rainbow Six Siege are all sought after when they are invested by Ubisoft without giving up. EA is no exception, they use to have step back with Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and have successfully overcome many mistakes.
Anthem is a game that also has the potential to grow, it is like a transition from the Dragon Age and Mass Effect games to the traditional DLC model into a full service game. Of course there will be many challenges for the company to not let players abandon the game, but Anthem still has a chance to be improved and become a great game, manufacturers need to know how to capture and complete it perfectly. This arduous start means developers and manufacturers need to focus more and the goal is a long-term success.
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