BioWare Addresses Anthem VIP Demo’s Rocky Start

What Went Wrong?

One of the most anticipated games of 2019 got off on a rocky start this weekend when the Anthem VIP demo didn’t exactly launch according to plan. The VIP demo started at noon on Friday. However, users participating in it immediately ran into a ton of issues. This includes not only flaky server connections, ultra long load times and some could not even log in at all.

What makes this very concerning is the fact that this is a VIP demo. So only a select few users (those who pre-order or have invitation) were actually on. Extrapolate that to an official launch with a significantly higher player count then the disaster could be much larger.

In an effort for transparency, Bioware‘s Head of Live Service Chad Robertson released a statement addressing what went wrong. “We’ve been testing the entire game and platform for several months, but there were a few things we missed; real-world play frequently leads to unexpected issues,” admits Robertson.

We're adding more server capacity to the #Anthem demo right now. Hang tight while we work to get everyone into the game.

— EA Help (@EAHelp) January 25, 2019

We're looking into the infinite loading issue with the #AnthemGame demo. In the meantime, try relaunching the game and rejoining your mission to see if that helps you.

— EA Help (@EAHelp) January 25, 2019

We're looking into the infinite loading issue with the #AnthemGame demo. In the meantime, try relaunching the game and rejoining your mission to see if that helps you.

— EA Help (@EAHelp) January 25, 2019

What is BioWare Doing to Address the Problem?

One thing he denies however is the rumour that they under-planned the server capacity. Emphasizing that they intend to manage their servers to match the player population as it grows. Furthermore, that they had excess capacity prepared for population increases.

• Platform connections: This was was apparently due to the spike in players entering the game upon launch. Unfortunately, these issues did not present themselves during the internal testing and investigations are ongoing. Bioware promises that they will continue to apply fixes throughout the weekend.
• Entitlements – These are account flags that grant players things like their pre-order incentives and demo access. There is a bug where VIP players with a specific combination of entitlements prevents them from accessing the demo. However, BioWare believes that most of these have now been resolved.
• “Infinite loads” – This is occurring for some players, particularly when they transition from Fort Tarsis to an expedition. They are aware of this issue in rare cases during internal testing. It was believed to be resolved but unfortunately, the problem is worse in the real-world. Especially since there are differences with player’s ISPs and home networks which introduce new behavior.

Following these revelations, the company will put top priority on fixing the infinite loads issue and the server latency. Furthermore, they are addressing all outstanding login and entitlement issues.

Free Anthem Skins as an Apology

Robertson ends his statement by apologizing for the inconveniences and thanking players for their patience. For the rough start, VIP demo participants will be getting an additional new vinyl at launch. This is basically an in-game skin which you can see in the image above.

For those who are still experiencing problems, the best way to solve it would be to head to Electronic Arts’ Answers HQ page. Users can reach out to community members and Anthem community suppor teams there. These messages also reach the development team so they are aware of any issues.