Anthem - Shutting down January 2026

[HiddenX]

Lucky Day spotted that Anthem will go offline on January 12, 2026:

Anthem Update

Bioware has announced that Anthem will be shutting down January 2026. In game currency purchases will be shut off immediately but those still holding some will still be able to make purchases. There will no offline mode for those who purchased the game because "Anthem was designed to be an online-only title so once the servers go offline, the game will no longer be playable."

More information.

 

[Couchpotato]

Surprised it wasn't shut down already. As it's the game that finally ruined BioWare.

They wasted to many resources and time that they neglected their other IP's.

We've all seen how the latest Dragon Age turned out after many delays and reboot.

 

[bjon045]

It's global fanbase will be greatly saddened. All three of them.

 

[Couchpotato]

Betcha a crazy fan will somehow create private servers to continue playing.

 

[Vaelith]

I mean, plenty of fans of games that are played by 3 people in this place, and they seem to think they have the superior opinion on everything, so I don't see why not.

 

[JDR13]

*Yawn*

 

[Couchpotato]

Yep it can't be a BioWare thread without certain replies.

Modern BioWare 101 just read that latest Bloomberg article about the developer.

Even David Gaider posted a new negative retrospective about this game.

It's the game that forced him to leave and eventually come back years later.

 

[Carnifex]

I never did try this one, seems I'd not missed much.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Don't Stop Killing Games!

 

[JDR13]

It's actually not a bad game. The visuals were really good for its time, and the combat is decent. A lot of non-Bioware fans probably enjoyed it, but people expecting another RPG were obviously disappointed. The focus on multiplayer also killed it for some.

 

[Andrew23]

It lacked content on release. It got repetitive very quickly. So despite the freeroam flying was really cool and despite decent combat, it didnt have chance to succeed. They cooked the backbone too long and ended up without time to put some meat on it.

 

[Stingray]

I played the beta or demo, or whatever they called it, and it was pretty terrible. Fancy graphics, but that was about it. But I'm not the target audience for a multiplayer loot grinder anyway, and I only even tried it because it had the BioWare name on it, without that it's a game I would have been perfectly happy to completely ignore.

 

[JDR13]

I played it at release, and it was far from terrible. I can understand people bouncing off it though if they don't like that genre.

 

[NFLed]

I am a BioWare fanboi but Anthem was never remotely interesting to me, and I felt sad that this was their focus for a large amount of time, similar to how I felt when they were focusing on Lord of the Rings MMO. To me it was probably like when Michael Jordan tried baseball (loose analogy).

 

[danutz_plusplus]

It should have at least had a singleplayer mode that buyers should still be able to play. The gameplay itself wasn't half bad. And the mech flying feel was pretty great.
Had they not made it multiplayer and a liveservice/item hunt game, and just focused on singleplayer, it could've even been solid. I believe anyway.

 

[JDR13]

It should have at least had a singleplayer mode that buyers should still be able to play. The gameplay itself wasn't half bad. And the mech flying feel was pretty great.
Had they not made it multiplayer and a liveservice/item hunt game, and just focused on singleplayer, it could've even been solid. I believe anyway.

Agree except for focusing on just single-player. Why would they do that? Even Baldur's Gate had multiplayer. There's no reason they couldn't have had both. My guess is that they didn't have the development time and/or budget to include a decent single-player campaign.

 

[henriquejr]

Good riddance!!!

 

[Stingray]

I am a BioWare fanboi but Anthem was never remotely interesting to me, and I felt sad that this was their focus for a large amount of time, similar to how I felt when they were focusing on Lord of the Rings MMO. To me it was probably like when Michael Jordan tried baseball (loose analogy).

Lord of the Rings Online has zero connection to BioWare. Maybe you mean SWTOR.

 

[JFarrell71]

It's a good thing for me that I don't fanboy over companies. Bioware really has become irrelevant at best for me this past decade.

I really don't understand the rationale behind fanboying over devs, though, tbh. When someone plays a game and loves it, what that game is (and isn't) is a byproduct of the people who made it. And when those people leave and go to other companies, as virtually everyone at Bioware who made the games you like have done, what does "Bioware" mean? At most, it's a neutral thing.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Agree except for focusing on just single-player. Why would they do that? Even Baldur's Gate had multiplayer. There's no reason they couldn't have had both. My guess is that they didn't have the development time and/or budget to include a decent single-player campaign.

If they had the budget for both, sure. But otherwise, the singleplayer should've been the thing that was there at the least. Then there'd be something left at this moment of shutdown.
But of course, their leadership couldn't give a shit what they leave behind.