EA has announced that the upcoming BioWare game Anthem will be delayed until 2019.

EA announced during its third-quarter earnings call today that Anthem, the new IP from veteran developer BioWare, will not be released at the end of 2018 as originally planned. Instead, it will be pushed back to the first quarter of 2019, meaning it will release sometime before the end of the following March.

Kotaku recently reported that BioWare is behind schedule on Anthem’s development which is the reason for the delayed release. EA denies this claim and instead states that the delay is due to the release of an as-yet-unannounced Battlefield game in the fall of 2018 and not wanting to dilute possible purchases with having two blockbuster games released at the same time.

EA offered no additional details regarding the upcoming Battlefield game other than it will release this fall.

"It's not a delay," said EA's CFO Blake Jorgensen to The Wall Street Journal. "People are trying to create a story."

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According to sources speaking with Kotaku, there’s a very real sense that the future of BioWare is riding on the success of Anthem, and it’s all hands on deck as both the Edmonton and Austin offices pool their resources into the game’s development. Skeletal staff are keeping Star Wars: The Old Republic afloat and planning the future of the next Dragon Age title, but otherwise BioWare is crunching hard to ensure that Anthem will be the new star IP from the developer.

Anthem
via greviews.co.uk
Anthem

As for the new Battlefield, we know literally nothing other than it’s coming out in 2018. EA is sure to release additional details in the coming weeks now that they’ve stated it exists, but beyond that, we know nothing.

EA’s current entry into the storied Battlefield franchise, Battlefield 1, was released in 2016 to much critical and commercial success. Set in World War 1, the game recently announced its fourth and final DLC, Apocalypse, which will add five new multiplayer maps as well as new weapons, vehicles, ranks, dog tags, service assignments, and specializations.

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