There’s a new corn maze in Edmonton this week, as part of the early promotional cycle for Anthem, but we’re not necessarily sold on the game industry’s latest stunt. It’s nice to see Electronic Arts and Bioware thinking outside of the box, but new information about Anthem, a multiplayer shooter announced at E3 2017 this year, is nowhere to be found. And we’re getting pretty tired of being bombarded with marketing materials that lack useful data.
The industry’s marketing and promotional efforts have become mind-numbingly predictable in recent years. When new projects are announced at major events, usually years before launch, then the developer and/or publisher fills in the gaps with whatever tiny announcements are just big enough to grab a few headlines. But EA and Bioware are taking a slightly different approach with Anthem, a game we’ve heard little about since June. The good news is that their risk-taking is generating some interesting new material. The bad news is they still found a way to maintain the industry’s “say nothing of value” status quo.
Bioware has partnered with Edmonton Corn Maze, a company that’s been growing new corn mazes annually for the last 17 years. The maze was designed by Bioware’s Director of Art & Animation, Neil Thompson, and covers the entirety of sprawling corn field. The Anthem maze includes a 50-foot Javelin exosuit, Bioware’s logo and some geometric patterns around each border. It’s not exactly the most intricate design we’ve ever seen. But it’s probably not everyday that game artists are asked to draw with corn instead of modeling software. The only real complaint we have is that it’s a 140-second clip about Anthem that doesn’t give us a single piece of new information about the game, and we’re not exactly swimming in data as is.
For a closer look at EA and Bioware’s newest bit of Anthem promotion, take a few minutes to watch the corn maze footage uploaded this week. Then head down to the comments section and let us know if you’d like to see more unorthodox marketing for Anthem down the road.
Anthem is in development for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The game is expected to hit all three platforms sometime in fall 2018.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more Anthem coverage in 2017 and however long Bioware supports Anthem in the years following launch.
