Electronic Arts' latest franchise is coming early next year and Bioware is busy making sure that the final product will be able to stand up to expected public demand and usage. While it is an assuring factor that Electronic Arts has opened up a closed-alpha for "Anthem" to a small section of the general public, it seems there are still gamers who would rather risk being unable to play the upcoming game for good to get a few moments in the spotlight.
Part of sign-ups for the "Anthem" closed-alpha included the agreement that players were not to publicly discuss the details of their experience of the upcoming video game's current state. This included any posts about the "Anthem" closed-alpha in social media, screenshots, and video game streams.
According to Gearnuke, Electronic Arts made good on their promise to penalize any "Anthem" closed-alpha participants that decided to break the conditions of the testing period's non-disclosure agreement. The publication noted a video posted by the Youtube channel Live Fails that featured a TwitchTV streamer with the username smokethrone attempting to livestream the start of the "Anthem" closed-alpha.
In the video, smokethrone was able to broadcast the initial loading screen of the "Anthem" closed-alpha before an error notification shut down his downloaded copy of the game. After restarting his applications, the Twitch streamer is greeted by an empty Origins platform library with access to the "Anthem" closed-alpha copy nowhere in sight.
Both Gearnuke and Comic Book note that the smokethrone may have been penalized by the removal of any Origins platform game for the violation of the "Anthem" closed-alpha non-disclosure agreement. But GameRant does point out that there is a possibility that smokethrone simply lost access to the "Anthem" closed-alpha due to his violation of the non-disclosure agreement but still had access to an empty Origin account due to not owning any other game on Electronic Arts' digital distribution platform.
According to the publications, Electronic Arts has not publicly commented on the video. The company has yet to confirm if smokethrone's video is a legitimate example of how it deals with those who do not honor the regulations of the "Anthem" closed-alpha non-disclosure agreement. As GameRant mentions, there is a high chance that smokethrone's gaming library was erased by Electronic Arts as some digital distribution platforms reserve the right to refuse service to certain users who do not follow their guidelines.
Fans of Bioware's earlier work who are looking forward to seeing how "Anthem" performs can catch the game's debut on Feb. 22 of next year. Hopefully, Electronic Arts will provide more public venues to for the public to discuss the pre-release state of "Anthem" to help Bioware craft a new franchise that can take the public by storm like the old "Mass Effect" franchise.
