"It took Anthem a very long time to admit to itself that it was a looter shooter," BioWare veteran says, which is why it was taking lessons from Diablo instead of Destiny

Heading into launch, Anthem was often called a "Destiny killer" – though that was a label assigned by press and enthusiasts, not by the devs at BioWare themselves. Yet by the time Anthem launched in 2019, it seemed clear that the devs had missed some key lessons from Bungie's looter shooter. As veteran producer Mark Darrah explains in a new interview, BioWare was still trying to take lessons from the venerable Diablo series rather than Destiny.

"I think it took Anthem a very long time to admit to itself that it was a looter shooter," Darrah tells Destin Legarie. That tracks with a 2019 report from Jason Schreier at Kotaku, where sources at the studio reported that leadership at BioWare pushed back on any reference Destiny at all, despite devs suggesting that they should be learning from the market leader in the genre.

"From a design perspective, the number one touch point for Anthem was actually Diablo," Darrah says. "So it was trying to be like that. I feel like maybe it could have done that. I don't know." But, he notes, Blizzard had a multitude of Diablo games to learn lessons from, and he admits that Destiny might've provided "easier lessons" for Anthem's development.

"First of all, more directly comparable," Darrah continues. "They're both shooters. They're both looter shooters. Whereas, you know, Diablo is what, a looter sworder?" Diablo predates the looter shooter genre by some time, and Darrah says "I think there's always a danger in using something with that level of pedigree as your exemplar because it gets permission to be different by being so much older."

Diablo's DNA is easy to see in pretty much any game that focuses on loot drops – whether that's Destiny, Borderlands, or Anthem – but, as Darrah suggests, it's very much its own thing. Blizzard's game established its identity in an era before players demanded MMO levels of content from their loot games, and the areas that Destiny got right – like bespoke raid and dungeon activities and rewards that define the endgame and remain essentially unmatched in the genre – could've provided good lessons to BioWare in their own game.

Anthem "did permanent damage to the careers of a lot of game devs" says Dragon Age veteran, and he's not sure he or BioWare ever "came back" from its spectacular failure.