EA Cancels Anthem’s Revamp

BioWare, the developer for Anthem, has posted a blog update that officially announced the end of development for Anthem’s big revamp (Anthem Next) and an end to the game’s development future.  The blog post also states that there are no plans to end the live service that the gam runs on and players can expect the run “as is” for now.  Which is a positive as the game requires an online service to run.

For those unaware, Anthem was one of the most anticipated games of its time and launched in a state that could only be stated as unfinished.  After years of improvements to the game by BioWare, the game is quite good but lacks any reasonable player base for a multiplayer focused game after the terrible start to the game.

The studio makes mention of COVID-19 limiting their manpower and capabilities to a point that fixing Anthem was taking away from the new Mass Effect and Dragon Age releases while also creating problems with creating updates for more successful games, like Star Wars: The Old Republic.

This is not a surprising move as the game was all but dead after the horrible launch and inability to fix the problems for months after the release, but it is certainly sad to see for core Anthem players who supported the game from day one. 

Hopefully Anthem 2 is not off the table for the studio as the game did have a solid platform and concept as a looter shooter, but the series may never be seen again with how poor the original has performed.