BioWare Terminates Plans to Salvage Anthem

The FPS Review may receive a commission if you purchase something after clicking a link in this article.

Image: BioWare

BioWare will no longer attempt to salvage its troubled online multiplayer action role-playing game, Anthem. The white flag was raised by BioWare Austin studio director Christian Dailey, who shared a blog post today confirming that development on the title’s proposed revival, Anthem NEXT, has been terminated. Dailey pointed out that the Anthem live service would continue running, however, which means that players who are satisfied with the current experience can continue enjoying it for as long as EA is willing to keep the franchise and servers alive.

“2020 was a year unlike any other […] and while we continue to make progress against all our game projects at BioWare, working from home during the pandemic has had an impact on our productivity and not everything we had planned as a studio before COVID-19 can be accomplished without putting undue stress on our teams,” Dailey wrote to clarify why BioWare had given up on Anthem.

“I know this will be disappointing to the community of Anthem players who have been excited to see the improvements we’ve been working on. It’s also disappointing for the team who were doing brilliant work. And for me personally, Anthem is what brought me to BioWare, and the last two years have been some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my career.”

A report from earlier this month revealed that EA would have had to triple BioWare’s manpower in order to bring the developer’s Anthem NEXT vision to life. Evidently, the publishing giant decided that it wasn’t worth the additional cost and opted to shift the studio’s focus to its Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Star Wars: The Old Republic titles instead.

Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

Recent News