So Long, Anthem: EA’s Biggest Flop Says Goodbye

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The online game Anthem, developed by BioWare and EA, is no longer playable. Its servers have been shut down, making it inaccessible to players. When we first reviewed the game in 2019, we gave it a 5 out of 10. While the game had some high points – like the powerful Javelins, satisfying gunplay, and amazing ability to fly – it ultimately didn’t live up to expectations.

Despite its potential, Anthem suffered from repetitive missions, a lack of diverse enemies and content, and a slow, frustrating start that felt artificially extended. Frequent visual glitches, lengthy loading times, and the cumbersome Fort Tarsis hub – requiring constant returns just to change equipment, slow movement, and even forced teleportation – all contributed to a needlessly frustrating experience.

Despite its issues, there’s still reason to be optimistic about Anthem. As one of our reviewers put it, the game isn’t beyond saving – it just needs significant improvements. The core problems need to be fixed before BioWare adds more content. Focusing on a solid foundation is crucial. Currently, Anthem feels raw and unfinished, like the creative energy behind its name. But with dedicated effort and refinement, it has the potential to become something truly special.

It appears BioWare listened to player feedback. In 2020, they announced a major revamp of the game’s fundamental systems, called Anthem Next. Christian Dailey, who was leading the Anthem project at the time, explained in a BioWare blog post that the team planned to significantly improve the player experience.

The Anthem team is now in the early stages of development, and we’re testing our initial ideas, according to Dailey. We call this ‘incubation’ – it means we’re revisiting and experimenting to improve areas where we think we can do better, while also building on the things people already enjoy about Anthem. We’re a lean team of around 30 people, working towards our first big goals. This will be a significant undertaking, and the small team size is intentional – it allows us to be flexible and take the time needed to get things right, something a larger team might struggle with.

We’re aiming for a new experience for both the team and our players, and we know it won’t be easy. We want to keep you involved throughout the process, being completely open about our progress and goals. You’ll likely see great ideas that don’t make the final cut, and things we’re focusing on that might not seem promising – but that’s part of trying new things, and it’s okay. Because you’re so passionate about Anthem, we want to be as transparent as possible, even if it means showing you the less polished parts of development – and it’s not always pretty!

In early 2021, BioWare cancelled all plans to rebuild Anthem. In a blog post, Casey Dailey explained that 2020 was a challenging year, and working from home during the pandemic had slowed down their progress on all projects. They decided to scale back their ambitions to avoid overworking their teams and ensure a healthy work environment.

Dailey announced that BioWare is now concentrating all its efforts on the Dragon Age game (which launched in 2024 to mixed reviews and lower-than-expected sales), the next Mass Effect installment (currently still in development as of 2026), and maintaining Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Creating games is challenging, and making decisions about our projects isn’t easy. Going forward, we need to concentrate our energy as a studio on making the next Dragon Age and Mass Effect games the best they can be, while also continuing to support and update Star Wars: The Old Republic with high-quality content.

Despite being considered a major disappointment and largely abandoned by EA after its release, Anthem actually sold a surprising number of copies. An ex-EA employee’s LinkedIn profile indicated that the game sold 5 million copies overall, with 2 million sold in its first week. However, EA still considered it a commercial failure because sales didn’t meet their internal goals. It’s remarkable that selling 5 million units wasn’t enough for the game to be considered a success.

It’s been disappointing to watch the story of Anthem unfold. I won’t rehash the well-documented development issues, but I keep thinking back to its initial reveal at E3 2017. The demo was incredible, showcasing amazing potential for a brand new game, and it quickly generated a lot of excitement online. Sadly, much of what was shown in that demo never made it into the finished game.

Even though plans to improve Anthem were scrapped, a dedicated group of players kept the game alive. Now that official support has ended, they’re hoping to continue playing through privately-run custom servers. It’s currently uncertain if they’ll be successful.

The live service game Anthem has failed, joining many others that didn’t live up to their promise. While it had some strong elements, it ultimately didn’t offer enough to keep players engaged and has been discontinued.

It’s disappointing that Anthem will likely be remembered not as a fun game, but as an example of what happens when a game is poorly managed, planned, and developed – ultimately leading to its failure soon after release.

Please be aware that the opinions shared in this article are the author’s own and don’t reflect the official stance of GamingBolt.

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2026-01-13 16:12