EA shuts down "Anthem"

“Unimaginative and boring: The role-playing experts from Bioware experience a bitter crash landing with their loot shooter Anthem” – This is how the “Anthem” test on heise online begins. The online shooter not only failed with critics, but also experienced a commercial crash landing. On January 12, 2026, around 7 years after its release, EA now wants to shut down “Anthem” for good.

EA announced this in a support entry. The “Anthem” servers will be shut down on this date. The online shooter will be completely unplayable, EA emphasizes: “Anthem was designed as an online-only game, so it will no longer be playable once the servers go offline.”

Alongside malice, the internet is dominated by astonishment that the Anthem servers were still online at all. After all, nothing had been heard about the game for years and the number of players was probably minimal. It is obvious that the server operation was no longer financially viable. Nevertheless, the timing of EA's announcement has a bit of a flavor: it was published on the same day that the EU citizens' initiative “Stop Destroying Videogames”, which campaigns against the permanent shutdown of video games, reached the necessary signature hurdle of one million votes.

“We appreciate your passion”

Buyers of “Anthem” now have another six months to fly in battle suits across the alien planet, which was at least graphically impressive at the time of its release. In-game currency that has already been purchased can be used until the deadline. You can no longer buy new ones. “Anthem” itself can also no longer be purchased separately.

“We greatly appreciate your dedication, passion, and support over the years and would like to thank you for it,” writes EA in the support entry. The US company should be happy to finally close the “Anthem” chapter. The online shooter is one of the biggest flops in the company's history and, in the view of many fans, sealed the end of the former cult studio Bioware – at least in the form that produced top-class classics such as “Mass Effect”, “Baldur's Gate” and “Knights of the Old Republic”.

A report by game's journalist Jason Schreier also revealed juicy details from the disastrous development of “Anthem”: the working conditions were said to have been so strenuous that many developers were put on sick leave by doctors due to stress, sometimes for months. One of the employees told Schreier that he often withdrew to a quiet room to simply cry.“Depression and anxiety are an epidemic at Bioware,” Schreier quoted the Bioware developer as saying. The main problem was the lack of direction: Nobody knew exactly what Anthem was supposed to become. Early concepts of a survival game did not have much to do with the loot shooter that was ultimately released. In addition, the management team was regularly replaced.

(dahe)