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Anthem Has Lost Its Lead Producer, Ben Irving

He still believes that the game has a "bright future."

By Steve Watts on August 19, 2019 at 11:48PM PDT

Ben Irving, the lead producer on BioWare's action-RPG Anthem, has announced he's leaving the company after eight years. In a statement on Twitter, Irving said that he has accepted a position with another company and that Anthem still has a "bright future" under current leadership.

In his series of tweets, Irving says BioWare was his "dream place" to work since the first time he played Baldur's Gate. He thanks the Anthem community for being so engaged "through the good times and the tough times," and says they're in good hands with Jesse Anderson and Andrew Johnson. It's unclear, from his statement, who will be filling the lead producer role for future Anthem updates. He also referenced an opportunity at a new developer, but has not specified where.

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Now Playing: What Anthem Doesn't Tell You

(1/3) After 8 amazing years at BioWare I have made the decision to move on and have accepted an exciting opportunity at another gaming company. Since the first time I played Baldurs Gate many many years ago, BioWare was the dream place I always wanted to work.
— Ben Irving (@BenIrvo) August 15, 2019

(2/3) I will forever be grateful to all the people who gave me the chance to work on great products with amazing people. I believe Anthem has a bright future - there is a great team working on it and I look forward to following its progress (and playing it!) from the sidelines.
— Ben Irving (@BenIrvo) August 15, 2019

(3/3) I have really enjoyed interacting with the Anthem community - Streams, Twitter and Reddit. Through the good times and the tough times. You all are in great hands with @Darokaz and @UNTDrew (and have been for some time now). I wish nothing but the best for all of you. Ben.
— Ben Irving (@BenIrvo) August 15, 2019

Irving has been with BioWare since 2011, serving a variety of roles including lead development director for The Old Republic franchise and the lead producer on Star Wars: The Old Republic. Anthem struggled with a rocky launch, and recently launched its anticipated Cataclysm update.

GameSpot has reached out to EA for comment.

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Anthem's a good game, I'm looking forward to enjoying it over the coming 7-10 year support-plan.

Upvote • 5 years ago

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"Anthem struggled with a rocky launch" (that's putting it mildly!) "and recently launched its anticipated Cataclysm update." (which was also crap!!) Quit buying games from EA, people!!!

3 • 5 years ago

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All that's left now is for EA to officially announce they're not supporting Anthem anymore.

2 • 5 years ago

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Edited By thremon

The game its totally destroyed i dont understand why they make it easier it is a waste of time and potential

2 • 5 years ago

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By "bright future", he must mean a funeral pyre.

5 • 5 years ago

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It's infuriating that EA Games can be this incompetent and get away with it because of the pure profitability stemming from MTX and their Sports line.

6 • 5 years ago

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@vakiva: I know right? They'll just keep doing pulling the same stunts because they can get away with it. They'll never learn anything.

3 • 5 years ago

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-“Anthem Lead Producer Leaving BioWare For New Company”-

But I though Anthem was doing well.

?

-AND THE REST TO FOLLOW NINJA APPROVED-

2 • 5 years ago

deactivated-611611d19b9ca

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deactivated-611611d19b9ca

Lol. Anthem is dead. It’s been $17 at GameStop for a couple months already. No one bought it. I have one friend who wanted it. He’s the type of guy with such bad taste in everything, you know that if he thinks it looks cool, it’s going to be trash.

2 • 5 years ago

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"...the game still has a "bright future" under current leadership."

Why even bother with saying that? Or was he referencing the fact that his poor leadership is partially why Anthem ended up flopping and that it's better off without him?

4 • 5 years ago

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Edited By Pupchu

I dont blame him. The people on the Titanic ran to the lifeboats as well...

5 • 5 years ago

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Edited By Utnayan

Cannot wait to hear what company so I can never buy a game he touches. Ben Irving was also responsible for the demise of SWTOR in later stages of the game's life. A yes man that makes completely questionable decisions for his development team and will not listen to developer feedback who know better than him. Gamespot please make sure to have another headline with the company he went to so everyone here can avoid it like the plague. And yes, he was responsible for Anthem in it's entirety and it's complete failure.

3 • 5 years ago

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"Anthem is doing so incredibly well that I'm jumping ship and running as far away as possible." That's the most believable thing I've ever heard /s

11 • 5 years ago

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He is ashamed/embarrassed by how Anthem turned out and is now leaving. Makes sense.

3 • 5 years ago

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This is a good thing right? All the stories about the failures of Anthem mention extremely poor upper management and direction, which means guys like him are to blame for the terrible state of the game.

2 • 5 years ago

deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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Edited By deactivated-64efdf49333c4

@Thanatos2k: They also mention, quite heavily, struggling with Frostbite, and, given how Anthem's biggest problems were bugs, that's not an insignificant point. And EA's usual meddling, of course, when they moved the only Frostbite programmers Bioware had to a different game they prioritized more.

A lot of people who don't read the articles they claim to have read rarely mention that.

Upvote • 5 years ago

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Edited By Thanatos2k

@Barighm: That was once they actually started implementing things. For years there was little or no design direction, and that was the job of this guy.

2 • 5 years ago

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Edited By chaosbrigade

@Barighm: I know a close friend that's worked in Bioware Edmonton for 5 years, and yes he's worked on Anthem. From what he told me, EA has surprisingly very little meddling with the game's design, the entire direction of microtransactions, shooter looter and online multiplayer direction was entirely the idea of Bioware's senior management.

Anthem was originally supposed to be a sci-fi fantasy single player RPG with a premise similar to Attack on Titans, but Bioware lead designers changed it because they think such a pitch wasn't profitable enough.

2 • 5 years ago

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DaVillain Moderator

Bye Bye.

4 • 5 years ago

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Nobody leaves a "dream job" after only 8 years.

We're going to see the closure of BioWare soon y'all.

3 • 5 years ago

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Edited By Thanatos2k

@neurogia: More likely EA held him responsible for the game's failure, and he was forced out.

3 • 5 years ago

deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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Edited By deactivated-64efdf49333c4

@Thanatos2k: Which is funny because all EA had to do was give Bioware until E3, or even the whole summer and wait til Christmas, and the game would have been much more tolerable. It's actually fun for what it is, but those killer bugs scared everyone away. It's ultimately as much EA's fault as Bioware's. Actually, given EA forced all of their studios to use Frostbite, you can really shift more of the blame to EA on this one. The whole "lack of direction" thing isn't really the sort of thing that is easily noticeable. It's the bugs that killed Anthem.

Upvote • 5 years ago

PlaystationZone

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PlaystationZone

One biggest flop from EA Games and still supporting it Anthem. So this guy left I don’t blame him .

4 • 5 years ago

Use your keyboard!

ESC

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