Latest news with #BioWare
WIRED
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- WIRED
‘Anthem' Is the Latest Video Game Casualty. What Should End-of-Life Care Look Like for Games?
Jul 7, 2025 6:43 PM Anthem will disappear in early 2026. The move comes as consumer group Stop Killing Video Games fights to preserve similar online service games. Electronic Arts and BioWare will sunset their online multiplayer game Anthem on January 12 of next year, effectively making it obsolete. ' Anthem was designed to be an online-only title so once the servers go offline, the game will no longer be playable,' BioWare wrote in the announcement. On August 15, the game will disappear from EA Play's playlist. Right now, players can't buy in-game currency, but they will still be able to spend what they have until servers are offline. Developers at BioWare who have been working on Anthem will not be laid off as a result of the game's end. News of the game's shutdown comes as the industry, already going through an upheaval, faces increased pressure from players to create 'end of life' plans for service games. Anthem 's development lasted almost seven years, during which the game struggled through major redirections. Its 2019 launch was widely panned by critics, who described it as uneven in its execution, riddled with bugs, and tedious. While BioWare and EA had initially planned to overhaul the game after launch—an undertaking known as Anthem Next —BioWare canceled the project in 2021, citing Covid-19, to shift focus to other games. Its live service continued to run. Online, fans on places like EA's official forums are asking for an 'offline mode' that would still allow them to play Anthem even without the servers. 'To shut down and completely remove a game people have put money into (especially without refunds) is a worrying and dangerous precedent,' one player wrote. 'If you bought a game you should be able to play it.' Another player wrote that 'letting games like Anthem disappear completely also sends a dangerous message: that live-service games are disposable, no matter how much time or money players invested.' Video games disappear for many reasons, whether it's licensing issues, code being lost, or physical media becoming unplayable. The developer's decision to end Anthem 's server support speaks to a problem specifically being combated by Stop Killing Games, a consumer movement out of the European Union that argues this practice is destroying some titles unnecessarily. 'An increasing number of video games are sold effectively as goods—with no stated expiration date—but designed to be completely unplayable as soon as support from the publisher ends,' the campaign's website reads. This practice, the movement's organizers claim, 'is not only detrimental to customers, but makes preservation effectively impossible.' Stop Killing Games won't be able to do anything to stop the demise of Anthem . The organization relies on petitions, tries to seek government intervention—actions that couldn't achieve outcomes before next January. Still, says founder Ross Scott, the sunsetting is 'exactly the sort we're trying to prevent.' The goal is to 'break the cycle so this doesn't keep happening for future games.' For Scott, and the other adherents of Stop Killing Games, destroying a videogame—much like destroying every copy of a book, album, or film—is tantamount to 'a cultural loss for society,' according to the group's website. 'While a less recognized medium, videogames still deserve to have basic protections against the complete and willful destruction of many of its works.' What they want is for companies to have backup plans that allow games to live on in a playable format even if they have to be taken offline. 'While Anthem received a lot of negative reviews, it obviously has a lot of production value behind it,' he says, as well as 'buyers who want to play the game regardless.' He's never played the game before. Now, he says, he won't get to. Easier said than done. Video games are a more dynamic medium than books or film, one that is predicated on both a player's autonomy in the game and can be supplemented through updates and downloadable content. Online games can be even trickier. SKG, however, argues that past multiplayer online games have survived without company servers through players privately hosting themselves. Stop Killing Games launched in 2024. Its first big petition is attempting to drum up support from the UK government, which will debate campaigns in Parliament if 100,000 signatures are gathered. The petition has since gained over 1 million signatures so far, a significant achievement that could tip the odds in SKG's favor, even if Parliament has yet to respond to the petition. The group also hoped that if enough people signed, they could persuade the European Commission to introduce consumer protection legislation aimed at preserving games. Last week, in a direct response to the petition, Video Games Europe, which represents the industry in that region, said that 'the decision to discontinue online services is multi-faceted, never taken lightly and must be an option for companies when an online experience is no longer commercially viable.' Moving games to private servers, the organization claimed, could leave players' data vulnerable and not allow games companies to 'combat unsafe community content' or remove illegal content. 'In addition,' Video Games Europe's statement read, 'many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create.' Video games are more costly than they've ever been, both to make and to buy. Players want media they can continue to play for years to come, and live service games are sold on the idea that they'll continually be updated and supported. Capturing that experience in a bottle will mean reconsidering how far that support goes—and if the video games of today will have the staying power of their predecessors. 'I do commend [Video Games Europe's] honesty on how they view customers playing old games as an industry problem because they see that as competing with new ones,' Scott says. 'We're obviously opposed to those views and feel customers should enjoy whatever it is they paid for.'
Gizmodo
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
So Long, ‘Anthem,' See Ya In the Skies
In February 2019, Dragon Age and Mass Effect developer BioWare released Anthem, a third-person shooter about human Freelancers donning armored Javelin suits to fight monsters and various factions. After seven years, EA is permanently taking the live-service game down on January 12, 2026, and with it, a chapter in the studio's modern era is forever gone. To know Anthem is to know its tumultuous life; the game famously suffered from crunch and internal struggles owing to BioWare's knowledge of separately developing multiplayer games and third-person shooters—thanks, respectively, to Star Wars: The Old Republic and its Mass Effect series—but not having the expertise to make an ongoing multiplayer third-person shooter. But at the time, we didn't know that; we just saw a game with four-player co-op about flying around big, expansive environments in sick mech suits with cool powers. At a time when the live-service shooter market was mainly just Destiny 2 and Warframe, it seemed like this could be another winner in that lineup. But that didn't happen. While it had a really great initial reveal, Anthem launched to mixed reviews and players running out of things to do fast. BioWare tried to steer things in a better direction with free DLC and a proposed rework, even going so far as to detail what specific ideas they hoped to implement. From increased drop rates to sky pirates and deeper Javelin build customization, it all sounded promising in concept, and seemed like the type of reboot that could really turn things around. Come 2021, EA opted to end future development; BioWare refocused on single-player games with the Mass Effect remasters and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the latter of which started as a live-service game and had those elements mostly stripped out. Anthem's place in video game history is…kind of complicated. Its short life aside, it actually did fairly well commercially, with 5 million copies sold within its lifetime. Over the years, I've revisited it on PC and PlayStation and it's generally been easy to join or start a session. That clearly shows signs of an affection for the game, and in the time before EA's fateful decision, there was genuine support at it potentially getting a second shot at life a la Final Fantasy XIV and Destiny: The Taken King. That turnaround was somewhat undermined by the weeks and months leading up to the game's release, where it was nitpicked to hell and back and people were cynical enough to openly hope the game would fail. Some thought it didn't look good and was forced onto the developer by EA, others were just being mean and decided this was the game to dunk on because it represented current gaming trends they didn't like. Not a condemnation, just a general fact: every year, there's at least one triple-A game everyone decides to work their industry frustrations out on, and that year, it just happened to be Anthem. That doesn't take any of the sting away when the object of ire is something you enjoyed and wished others would understand why or lighten up on, or how that desire for blood has evolved into full-on hate campaigns and harassment toward developers of more recent titles. But Anthem's true legacy is one of a dodged bullet: over the years, similar attempts by publishers to end Destiny 2's reign (and that of fellow live-service giants like Fortnite and GTA Online) haven't exactly gone to plan. In many cases, those games' ends hit much harder than Anthem, and these days, a game's end can take much (or all) of a developer's staff with it. Not all of them get the dignity of having their servers left intact, let alone for nearly an entire decade. In that sense, BioWare was lucky, but only just so. Pre-release, Anthem was viewed by the optimistic as a potential redemption for the studio following the underperformance of 2017's Mass Effect: Andromeda, which has since had its own moment in the sun despite an equally rocky development and initial mixed reception. Anthem is arguably more of a black mark on the studio more than Andromeda since it was a new IP that lacked the safety net of an established franchise. Since both games' releases, questions of BioWare's future have grown in volume alongside the realization EA has repeatedly jerked the studio around on its recent projects and foisted unrealistic expectations foisted on those games. (And this isn't the only EA subsidiary burdened with this.) The publisher just wants its money makers, but lacks the sense to get out of its own way and let the developers do what they do best so to can make the hits they're all capable of, a troubling trend throughout 2025 and years past. Saying Anthem is going out with a whimper might be generous; unlike Star Wars Battlefront II's recent resurgence, it never really had a moment to reinvigorate its player base. (A Steam release might've made that possible.) Most seemed content to move on unless it was time to talk about BioWare and EA's current issues, or ill-advised live-service forays that seemed a good idea years earlier. Maybe that'll change closer to the servers going offline in January, maybe former developers will reminisce or throw shade about its rocky development or what they hoped to do with that rework. Regardless, the game we got is the game we got, and for all the snarking about it that's due to come in the next six months, there'll likely be about as much fond memories of its initial potential and those fun moments of flying around and pulling off combos in between the monotony and grind. At best, Anthem is passable bordering on Fine, but now comes off like a miracle that it got to exist and have enough time to breathe before it met its unceremonious end. Will always wish it were better and got to see its course correction through to the end, but at least I got some barrel rolls and good music out of the experience. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Forbes
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
EA Is Completely Shutting Down ‘Anthem' And No, You Can't Get A Refund
Anthem One of the biggest misfires of the looter-shooter Destiny-copycat era was BioWare's Anthem, a game that sapped loads of time and resources away from the likes of Dragon Age and Mass Effect to produce a half-baked release. I kind of loved it. Anthem had so, so many problems, of course, and it was not shocking that eventually, EA killed it instead of tripling down with more major updates. But now, EA has ended things for a second time. For good, It has just been announced that Anthem servers will be shut down entirely on January 12, 2026, six months from now. The game has still been able to be played all this time, even since its 'death' in February 2021, but now? Nothing. You won't be able to play at all. This is sad because Anthem will always be a 'what could have been' for me with genuinely fun combat and moves toward fixing itself near the end. But this raises another modern-era games question about a title that people paid for but now will not be able to play at all. Despite single-player elements including an entire campaign you'd play solo, because the game needs a server connection, with those servers offline, you cannot play it. And no, no refunds will be issued for the game. The FAQ doesn't address this, but it's true, though it does have a section about how you can still spend your premium in-game currency until it's shut down! Hooray! Anthem FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder The timing of this comes alongside a big movement called Stop Killing Games, a petition that has racked up 1.1 million supporters and is about exactly this: games that players paid for being summarily deleted from existence. Here's the description: Right now this is largely based in Europe, and in some countries, progress has been made regarding the process in some places. This current movement is UK-focused, as a petition like this will be considered to be brought before Parliament if it gets 100,000 signatures. It has certainly gotten that. A separate movement to register complaints in France about The Crew being shut down is also part of this. This is not some moneymaking scheme; Stop Killing Games does not want funding, but a genuine consumer movement, and now we can add Anthem to a long list of games that are unplayable because they were designed as online-only, even with single-player elements, and have shut those servers down so they are inaccessible. And no, no refunds. That seems very wrong. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
The Verge
04-07-2025
- Business
- The Verge
The end of an Anthem.
The end of an Anthem. BioWare's much-maligned live service shooter is shutting its servers on January 12th, 2026. It'll be playable until then, though you can no longer purchase in-game premium currency, and it'll disappear from EA Play on August 15th. EA says there have been no layoffs as a result, though jobs were lost at BioWare in January.
Geek Culture
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- 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
