Anthem NEXT: EA pulls the plug on sci-fi looter shooter redesign
A year after announcing plans to redesign many of the core features of Anthem, EA has finally decided to pull the plug on the failed sci-fi looter shooter.
Anthem first launched in February 2019 and while it had considerable hype leading up to its release, the full game failed to live up to those expectations. While I personally enjoyed some aspects of the game, such as its combat, certain elements, like the loot system and overall gameplay loop, left a lot to be desired. This was on top of a number of glitches and bugs that marred the overall experience.
Anthem launched in a rough state but I believed that with enough care and love, it could evolve into the game BioWare initially promised. That was the whole point of Anthem NEXT, which was announced about a year ago. BioWare was seemingly going back to the drawing board with the game.
In July, BioWare gave us a glimpse into their ideas behind the new loot system. It sounded incredible. Throughout the year, they’d give us updates on other systems as well.
But the gaming industry moves fast and the time and effort being spent on Anthem was, at least in EA’s mind, probably better spent elsewhere. BioWare has some big projects in the works and that’s where their efforts will shift.
As explained by Anthem executive producer Christian Dailey:
"Game development is hard. Decisions like these are not easy. Moving forward, we need to laser focus our efforts as a studio and strengthen the next Dragon Age, and Mass Effect titles while continuing to provide quality updates to Star Wars: The Old Republic."
Anthem will continue to run as it currently exists — as a live service — but I can’t imagine any more time will be spent on any sort of major updates or in-game events. I suspect it will only be a little while longer before the servers are shut down for good.
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I had high hopes for Anthem but this is probably the best move for EA and BioWare. As Dailey mentioned, there are a ton of exciting games to look forward to from BioWare. We’ve got the new Dragon Age as well as the next chapter in the Mass Effect franchise. These are both very big projects and I’m sure BioWare needs all hands on deck.