"Anthem" before shutdown: Online shooter enters its last weekend

Anyone who still wants to play “Anthem” one last time has to hurry: Bioware's online shooter is about to be shut down. EA will deactivate the “Anthem” servers on January 12th. After that, “Anthem,” which was conceived from the outset as a purely online game, will no longer be playable. There is no offline version. Practically, the online shooter “Anthem” is thus entering its last weekend.

“Anthem” was released in February 2019 and flopped mercilessly. Critics panned the game, which ultimately also sold disappointingly. At the end of 2023, “Anthem” reached the sales milestone of 5 million copies sold – a number that EA actually wanted to reach just a few weeks after its release.

After the botched sales launch, developer Bioware invested hardly any resources in the further development of “Anthem”; the online shooter languished for years without significant support. Last July, EA finally announced that it would finally shut down the servers of “Anthem” about seven years after its release.

Bioware's Decline

For many, “Anthem” was the definitive proof of the decline of the once cult developer Bioware, known for, among other things, the role-playing classics “Knights of the Old Republic” and “Mass Effect.” Bioware has not really recovered since then: “Anthem” was followed by “Dragon Age: The Veilguard,” a game that was at best moderately received and also fell short of sales expectations. After several rounds of layoffs, there are likely not many personnel left at Bioware who worked on the studio's major successes.

The development of “Anthem” was apparently already very turbulent, reported game journalist Jason Schreier. Working conditions were said to have been so strenuous that many developers were signed off sick by doctors due to stress, sometimes for months. One of the employees told Schreier that he often retreated to a quiet room just to cry. “Depression and anxiety are an epidemic at Bioware,” Schreier quoted a Bioware developer. The lack of direction was particularly problematic: no one really knew what “Anthem” was supposed to become. Early concepts of a survival game had little in common with the loot shooter that was ultimately released. Furthermore, management was regularly replaced.

It is not uncommon in the gaming industry for online games to be shut down after a period of time. The community is fighting against this, among other things, as part of the “Stop Killing Games” initiative. It demands that games like “Anthem” should at least remain playable offline.

(dahe)