Video game comes to life on Edmonton Corn Maze field

BioWare sponsors event to create design from its upcoming game, Anthem

An Edmonton game development company is going back to the land to promote its latest outer-space adventure.

BioWare has sponsored the Edmonton Corn Maze in Spruce Grove to cut a design into the field from Anthem, a role-playing video game the firm plans to release around Christmas 2018.

“We wanted to partner with the corn maze folks for a while … We thought it would be a good idea to have an Anthem-themed corn maze this year,” BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn said Monday.

“We have so many developers here with families who go to the corn maze, we wanted to do it for that reason.

“Also, we wanted to get a little coverage.”

Other companies have had designs cut into the 17-year-old maze in the past, including ATB Financial and the Edmonton Oil Kings, he said.

BioWare, owned by Electronic Arts of Redwood, Calif., worked out the sponsorship plan late last winter and has been keeping the scheme under wraps, which Flynn said was harder because some planes heading for Edmonton International Airport go over the seven-hectare field. The maze is open until Oct. 24. Anthem will be the first game released by BioWare since it put out Mass Effect: Andromeda in March.

Flynn, who is leaving his job at the end of July, has indicated he expects Mass Effect will sell at least five million copies at an $80 retail price.

He said they’re happy with sales of the game, but wouldn’t release sales figures.