Just when it's almost two weeks for the long awaited class based - loot driven BioWare shooter to be released, which is Anthem. Respawn sneaks in with a hero based loot driven f2p shooter, which is Apex Legends.

I really don't understand why EA are repeating the same mistake again and ironically with Respawn on the other end. I could say that it is their loss but the idea that the devs won't get the same amount of exposure for their games if it weren't for EA's competition with themselves, is hard to swallow.

They're not loot driven in the same way. One game is focused on pve, while the other is purely a pvp shooter. Also think about how often were people using Origins? The number of both returning and new users of the platform are probably going to increase the chances of people noticing the very existence of Anthem, and in turn of course increase the number of sales.

Purely guesswork, but I'm thinking this probably has more to do with meeting financial expectations per quarter. If estimates on Anthem are lower than expected, this should definitely help soften that.

@toxicantidote: Yeah, they're different but not too different which reminds me about the time EA released battlefield one and titanfall in close periods. I hope that i'm wrong though and this end up being good for both games.

My guess was that they released Apex to try and get as many people to install Origin as possible, increasing exposure and likelihood of buying Anthem. Then it turned out that Apex became the most popular game in the world

@sparky_buzzsaw: exactly, which could explain why Apex popped out without any leading announcements.

@sparky_buzzsaw: yeah, i tend to agree with this sentiment.

i think there's blood in the water with Anthem, and with Apex looking good they hit the 'fuck it' button for EA (read: business) reasons as opposed to grand strategy.

which is a real bummer for Bioware. i feel like they have a half-baked game that's having what little attention they garnered evaporate before their eyes.

Anthem and Apex are pretty different things. I don't see too many people saying Fortnite is direct competition for Destiny. They compete only insofar as they're both multiplayer games, but it's not a case where someone looking for a specific type of experience and has to choose between Apex and Anthem.

So, while Apex and Anthem aren't really competing with each other, the funny thing EA is soon going to be competing with themselves again. Their battle royale mode for Battlefield V is supposedly coming out in the spring, so EA will have two newcomers to the genre competing with each other in addition to trying supplant Fortnite and PUBG.

At least Respawn seems to be given a legit to chance to succeed this time, unlike with Titanfall 2 which seemed sent out to die.

A few thoughts:

• While I agree that Apex and Anthem don't compete per se in terms of genre, there is still the base level competition for people's time. If folks are too busy playing Apex, Anthem might lose some people who would otherwise have tried it. Particularly given that Apex is entirely free to play while Anthem requires $60 up front.

• With that in mind, I think there is some competition just in the general sense that MMOs and PUBG-likes really rely on continuing interest from their player base to succeed, probably more than any other genres. Those games tend to go best when they grab someone and it becomes "their game" that they invest a ton of time into. If you had a player who would have spent most of their time on one or the other, but now splits their time between both, I'm not really sure that serves either game very well.

• There's also the fact that both games' business models rely on micto-transactions. If players have a limited amount of money, this release schedule risks spreading the money around in a way that makes it hard for either game to keep going. Anthem is insulated from this somewhat because there is still the initial entrance fee, but it could affect additional content down the line.

• Obviously we need to wait a few weeks to see if the player numbers for Apex come down significantly but if it's still going strong in a couple of weeks, then I think that makes Anthem's window extremely narrow. Those two betas did not go particularly well at all and most of the buzz surrounding the game seems on the negative end. EA is basically the Roman Abramovich of the video game world - they will pull the plug at the first sign of trouble. If Anthem flounders even a bit, it's easy to see EA yanking all the marketing and support from Anthem and just throwing in behind Apex.

They are so incredibly different from each other I really don't see them having a conflict. If you want a pve game with loot you have no choice but to go with Anthem. Apex Legends is nothing but battle royale. Now if this was about Battlefield V and it's battle royale mode then I would agree.

Speaking of which, when is that BF V Battle royale mode coming out? Last I checked its March of this year.

I'm not sure I agree. Most of my Destiny friends are getting into Apex. Between the two (Destiny has a new content drop starting in early March), I don't think we'll have much time for Anthem.

Well, I had a medicre interest in Anthem, and Apex lost me as soon as it mentioned "battle royale". I think Anthem just needs to focus on PvE/cooperative gameplay and it wont really have much crossover.

If Anthem has the destiny problem of "well you beat the thing I guess all thats left is kicking at the daily grind every day until the next DLC in six month" it will be quickly forgotten.

Ok but what else are you expecting? Cause that's what I expect out of every online loot/mmo game. Not saying that's all I want to play or want to see made, but it's what I expect out of any game that has online co-operative PvE and loot.

Was Activision competing with themselves with Call of Duty, Overwatch and Destiny? No.

Both Anthem and Apex will be fine.

The timing could've been better, but I'd say no. Really, Apex coming out about a month before BF5's BR mode might be the dumber move by EA. Maybe they've could've sold way more BF5 in March if Apex came out in July and still got millions of people to play Apex then. This move could hurt Battlefield more than Anthem. Alternatively, people could leave Apex once BF5 gets its mode. I probably will do that, since Apex's time to kill is way too high for my liking.

I don't see a ton of overlap between a BR game and a PVE loot shooter. Maybe it's just me, but I play BRs (and sports game) when I have nothing else to play. PUBG, Apex, and Blackout are more my "go to that game when there's nothing else to play". I don't think they're time consuming and with Apex being free I don't feel the need to give dozens of hours immediately.

They are not even almost the same genre.

@kingloo: Right, but Overwatch was released in Summer, Destiny released in September and Call of Duty released in November. Every game got a time to breath and players had enough with them where they can move on. However, we just had Apex and Anthem is coming in two weeks. Once, Anthem get released it will be almost a week till Apex major update in March. In March and as the guys mentioned we will also get BF BR mode.

EA should have done something like Activision.

I think Anthem will still face an uphill battle - even though the games are fairly different, Apex Legends is clearly the game people spent their time in atm.

If Anthem's cosmetics pricing turn out to be in line with the infamous leaked screenshot, they will look extra bad by proxy of another EA game that came out only 2 weeks prior and is free to play.