Anthem Development Shut Down, Existing Game to Remain Live - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 March 2021 / 1,427 Views
Publisher Electronic Arts and developer BioWare announced development on the reworked version of Anthem, called Anthem NEXT, has been cancelled. The current version of the game will remain playable for the time being.
Anthem is available now for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Origin.
"In the spirit of transparency and closure we wanted to share that we’ve made the difficult decision to stop our new development work on Anthem (aka Anthem NEXT)," said BioWare Austin executive producer Christian Dailey. "We will, however, continue to keep the Anthem live service running as it exists today.
"Since Anthem’s launch, the team has been working hard to continually improve the game, releasing multiple updates that brought with them a variety of improvements and introduced new content to play. Towards the end of 2019 we expanded on that effort and started working on a more fundamental restructure of the game.
"During the development we’ve provided updates revealing some of the team’s work through blog posts and conversations with you on social media and it’s been inspiring for us to see the positive reactions and feedback. I’ve been incredibly proud of the work the team has been doing, and excited to see and play each new build of the experience.
"2020 was a year unlike any other however 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.
"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.
"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.
"To the Anthem community, thank you for your passion and creativity. Your feedback and suggestions most certainly help shape the team’s direction, and on a personal note, your kindness and encouragement were much needed last year.
"Please stay safe and be kind to each other. Strong alone, stronger together."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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What a waste, of talent and money.
EA already has Bioware's gravestone made, now it's just a matter of hitting them in the back of the head and burying.
And no one was surprised.
The dumpster fire is finally dead.
Wow the community was waiting on a big patch that was supposed to make a lot of changes and improve the game. They were hopeful. Oh well.
After a year and a half completely reworking the game, I figured it had one last chance at redemption. At least this means the next Mass Effect and Dragon Age games will be fully staffed. Not that I have the highest hopes as is lol
I have very high hopes for Mass Effect in particular. Bioware and EA know that they have to deliver a very good game, lest they destroy most of the value left in the franchise. They know they will be in the spotlight. They know people aren't going to tolerate another game that isn't ready. Thanks to Cyberpunk, even the suits at all of these companies now understand that they're risking way too much when pushing out games before they're ready. I actually think we're in good shape in general for the next few years, because of the Cyberpunk fiasco, and the smaller Fallout 76 and Anthem bombs that came in the previous years.
Fewer companies are going to fuck up their blockbuster games while these lessons are fresh in mind.
The game was already dead upon arrival so no one will think about it.
we need to stop with those live service games. Truth is the vast majority of them were failures, except for Destiny and Warframe. The model of GTAV is much better, you deliver a full complete amazing game and on TOP of that you build an online mode to last forever and to be updated as long as people are consuming it.
r.i.p final nail in the coffin!
Hahahahaha! I cannot wait to see the day EA axes Bioware as well. At this point on they are simply destroying a legendary studio name that once meant something.
