Electronic Arts hopes Anthem will become a 'ten-year journey'

The reveal of BioWare's "loot shooter" Anthem at E3 left us with mixed feelings, but one thing about it that really shines through is its obvious similarity to Destiny. As Tyler put it bluntly leading into that discussion, "Is this Destiny 2 but with a BioWare story?" Hopefully BioWare is doing all it can to differentiate its game, but EA's Patrick Soderlund invoked another parallel of sorts when he told Major Nelson at E3 last week that the release of the game will hopefully mark the start of a "ten-year journey."

"It's an action, open world RPG, a social game where you and your friends go out on quests and journeys," Soderlund says in the video, starting at the 1:41:30 mark. "It's a game that we've been working on for almost four years now, and it's a game that we see, once we launch it next year, will be the start of, I think maybe a ten-year journey for us."

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The statement is highly—highly—reminiscent of the oft-cited ten-year-plan that was supposedly (but, as it turns out, not really) meant for the original Destiny. It's extremely ambitious, and as the announcement of Destiny 2 demonstrates, somewhat malleable as strategies go: A "ten-year journey" could mean just about anything, as long as the Anthem name is on it somewhere.

And it sounds like BioWare's ambitions are very high: Soderlund said he "pushed the development team" to create an open-world game that meets or exceeds the "fidelity" of more closed, scripted experiences. "It took time to get that done, but with some smart investment in technology, with some smart design, and an incredible art team, we got there," he said. "I can firmly say that I haven't seen any open-world game that looks as [good as] this."

Anthem is currently expected to be out in the fall of 2018. Catch up with everyone we know about it so far right here.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.