Bioware says it didn't under-plan server capacity for the Anthem VIP demo
Bioware has said the server issues faced by Anthem VIP demo players wasn't due to under-planning on its part.
Anthem VIP demo players were met with connectivity issues when trying to get in the game yesterday and today, but Bioware said it the cause isn't the lack of server capacity as many have assumed.
According to an update posted by Bioware’s head of live services, a plan was in place from the start to deal with population increases.
"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," said Chad Roberts. "I want to dispel one comment we’ve seen: that we under-planned for server capacity.
"To ensure stability, we intended to manage our servers to match the player population as it grew. Overall, we had excess capacity prepared for population increases, and continue to do so. That said, what’s important is that all parts of the game work as designed to meet players’ needs, and that did not happen in the opening hours."
Issues faced by Anthem players over the last 24 hours or so include infinite loads, blocked entitlements, connection issues, and rubber banding. Some workarounds have been posted by EA, so hopefully the suggestions noted in our previous post will help.
Roberts provided more insight into the aforementioned issues, and the plan Bioware has to combat the problems.
The main connection issues stemmed from the spike in players entering the game when the VIP demo opened up. Roberts said the issue didn't crop up during internal testing, but investigations are "ongoing" and fixes will continue to be applied throughout the weekend
Players with a specific combination of entitlements, such as pre-order incentives, were being blocked from accessing the demo. The issue has mostly been resolved, but there are other instances being looked into.
Many players were met with rubber banding and an infinite loads when leaving Fort Tarsis to head out on an expedition. Bioware saw this issue occur during internal testing and thought it had been resolved. But, differences in player ISPs and home networks introduced new behavior on that end.
"I want to be upfront that this is a difficult one, and something we may not resolve during this weekend," said Roberts. "Many players are not seeing this issue and the last thing we want to do is destabilize the experience for everyone.
"Reports of rubber-banding and other signs of server latency can be addressed, and we're conducting some small-scale experiments to confirm that. We may roll some fixes out this weekend or may wait for the open demo next weekend, depending on the level of risk to the overall service."
Despite all the hiccups, the demo as proved popular with folks online: Anthem saw over 300K concurrent viewers yesterday on Twitch, and over 100 million minutes worth of gameplay was watched.
Hopefully all will be right as rain when the public demo goes live next weekend on February 1.
Anthem releases February 22 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The game’s EA and Origin Access trials kick off February 15. Head over to our main Anthem page for everything else we know.