EA's Failed Live-Service Shooter 'Anthem' To Shut Down Jan 2026
Due to the title's online-only nature, this means that the game will be completely unplayable after its servers are taken offline, making it truly a dead game. Premium in-game currency has stopped being sold since 3 July, as though anyone is still buying those anyway, and the game will be removed from the EA Play library on 15 August this year, although it will still be available to download for those who already own the title, until its servers shut down next year.
'After careful consideration, we will be sunsetting Anthem on 12 January 2026,' wrote the BioWare team on a post announcing the game's shuttering. 'This means that the game will still be playable online for the next 180+ days. As of today, you can no longer purchase in-game premium currency, but you can still use your remaining balance until the servers go offline.'
In a short Q&A accompanying the post, the team clarified that 'the sunsetting of Anthem has not led to any layoffs', which at least comes as a relief given that EA has gone through a series of massive layoffs over the past few years, including axing 50 jobs at BioWare in 2023, laying off around 670 staff and cancelling a Star Wars FPS title in 2024, and most recently, cutting around 400 positions an scrapping two more games in the works, including an extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe.
Anthem joins the long list of failed live-service titles over the past few years, such as Crystal Dynamics' 2020 action-adventure title Marvel's Avengers or PlatinumGames's 2022 RPG, Babylon's Fall , further cementing how blindly adopting the format, either due to greed or to chase industry trends, can and most likely will spell disaster for even the most respected game studios.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. Anthem BioWare Electronic Arts Live Service Games
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Geek Culture
3 hours ago
- Geek Culture
Samsung Unpacked July 2025: What To Expect From Galaxy Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7 And More
Now that the Samsung Galaxy S25 series is out in the wild, the time has come for the tech giant to shine the spotlight on its other flagship offerings. The third Galaxy Unpacked event, taking place in New York on 9 July (Singapore Time), is next on the agenda, and it puts unfolding as the central focus, which, of course, can only refer to its foldable lineup: the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip 7. While the usual fare will likely involve hardware upgrades and quality-of-life improvements, the company has hinted at several new major additions. The wearable range, specifically the Galaxy Watch 8, is also expected to get an official reveal, following incremental upgrades to the Watch 7 from previous generations. Here's what's been going around the rumour mill. Artificial intelligence (AI) is all the buzz, and it'd be weird if Unpacked didn't follow suit. The word on the grapevine is that AI features, including the Google-powered Gemini Live, will take up a chunk of the presentation, with physical tweaks on both the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 indicating a slimmer, more compact build. Additionally, the cover and inner displays on the former are reportedly bigger than before, measuring 6.5 inches and 8.2 inches, respectively (versus 6.3 inches and 7.6 inches). The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is tipped to inherit the same 200-megapixel (MP) main camera from the main S25 series as well, alongside a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, the thinnest design in the series to date, and a triple camera system. The Galaxy Z Flip 7, meanwhile, is believed to boast a 4-inch cover screen, slightly larger than the previous 3.4 inches, a 4,300mAh battery that should clock the longest battery life in the series, and the Exynos 2500 chip instead of the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite. The Galaxy Watch 7 series On the smartwatch front, leaks point to a squarish case design and a microLED display for the Galaxy Watch 8, which would mark a departure from the OLED convention. Blood glucose monitoring via the wrist is another possibility, offering a more accessible way for users to keep track of blood sugar levels. If the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge at the previous Unpacked is any indicator, chances are there will be variations of the devices. The Galaxy Z Flip 7, for instance, may include an entry-level option, and it wouldn't be surprising if the Z Fold 7 welcomes a new, higher-end Ultra model. A triple-fold concept similar to the Huawei Mate XT is also widely speculated to debut at the upcoming Unpacked event, but even if it does, availability is likely limited to a small pool of markets. As for the Galaxy Watch 8, there are rumblings of a Classic iteration that, according to a batch of leaked renders and a test firmware leak, will ship with a 47mm watch face, a rotating bezel, a 1.5-inch display, and a 435 mAh battery. The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event goes live on 9 July. Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth's theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia's greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Geek Culture
11 hours ago
- Geek Culture
EA's Failed Live-Service Shooter 'Anthem' To Shut Down Jan 2026
Electronic Arts (EA) has hammered in the final nail in Anthem's coffin, as BioWare's failed 2019 live-service looter shooter will officially shut down on 12 January 2026. Due to the title's online-only nature, this means that the game will be completely unplayable after its servers are taken offline, making it truly a dead game. Premium in-game currency has stopped being sold since 3 July, as though anyone is still buying those anyway, and the game will be removed from the EA Play library on 15 August this year, although it will still be available to download for those who already own the title, until its servers shut down next year. 'After careful consideration, we will be sunsetting Anthem on 12 January 2026,' wrote the BioWare team on a post announcing the game's shuttering. 'This means that the game will still be playable online for the next 180+ days. As of today, you can no longer purchase in-game premium currency, but you can still use your remaining balance until the servers go offline.' In a short Q&A accompanying the post, the team clarified that 'the sunsetting of Anthem has not led to any layoffs', which at least comes as a relief given that EA has gone through a series of massive layoffs over the past few years, including axing 50 jobs at BioWare in 2023, laying off around 670 staff and cancelling a Star Wars FPS title in 2024, and most recently, cutting around 400 positions an scrapping two more games in the works, including an extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe. Anthem joins the long list of failed live-service titles over the past few years, such as Crystal Dynamics' 2020 action-adventure title Marvel's Avengers or PlatinumGames's 2022 RPG, Babylon's Fall , further cementing how blindly adopting the format, either due to greed or to chase industry trends, can and most likely will spell disaster for even the most respected game studios. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. Anthem BioWare Electronic Arts Live Service Games
Geek Culture
11 hours ago
- Geek Culture
Sony's 'Helldivers 2' Lands Xbox Release in Aug, With PC and PlayStation Cross-Play
Xbox Series X/S gamers will soon be able to spread managed democracy for the glory of Super Earth, as Sony and Arrowhead Game Studios' cooperative third-person shooter Helldivers 2 is officially heading to Microsoft's console on 26 August this year. Dropping the news from orbit during an announcement stream, the game will also feature full cross-play with both the PS5 and PC, but is also currently available on the Xbox store for pre-order. Its release also marks a rather historic moment, as it will be the first ever Sony-published game on Xbox platforms, highlighting the former's shift in strategy to bring its games to a wider audience. 'We know gamers have been asking for this for some time and we are so excited to bring more Helldivers into our game,' wrote game director Mikael Eriksson in an announcement post on Xbox Wire. 'We have so much more in store for the future months and years – and the more players we have the more stories we can tell! The fight for Super Earth has only just begun.' Xbox players are due to join the fight in the game's overarching Galactic War, a real-time metagame where players work together to complete operations and liberate planets, facing off against the bug-like Terminids, the robotic Automatons, and most recently, taking the fight to Earth itself with the Heart of Democracy major update, defending the planet from mind-controlling xenophobic aliens known as the Illuminate. Having a whole new faction of console players is bound to give the game a healthy boost to its player base, especially important for one that adopts a live-service model. Within the genre, Helldivers 2 does stand out as one of its more successful titles, currently still holding its position in the top 30 titles on Steam's most played games list with a 24-hour peak of 45,745 concurrent players, more than a year after its launch in February last year. Its move to a new console and the inclusion of cross-play will likely increase this number further, as players can finally hop back into the game with their friends on Xbox. Players can airdrop in new reinforcements when Helldivers 2 launches for the Xbox Series X|S on 26 August 2025. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. Arrowhead Game Studios Helldivers 2 Sony Xbox
