Enlarge / Tears of an Anthem clown. (credit: Aurich Lawson / Bioware / Getty Images)
The story of EA and Bioware’s beleaguered action-RPG Anthem has apparently ended. According to an official Bioware blog post, the ambitious jetpack-combat game’s “overhaul” project is dead. The staff that had been assigned to rebuild the game into a better shape has been reassigned to work on other Bioware projects, particularly Dragon Age 4 and the next Mass Effect game.
A little over one year ago, Anthem‘s flight-combat skies looked a bit clearer, thanks to an announcement from developer Bioware that it intended to build a “substantial reinvention” of the always-online co-op adventure game. From what we saw in the game’s March 2019 launch version, EA and Bioware clearly intended for the game to receive regularly updated content, but negative reviews (including my own) made clear that Bioware needed to go back to the drawing board to rebuild the game’s basic building blocks before we had any interest in returning to the game.
No more singing of the Anthem
Then-general manager Casey Hudson made a February 2020 statement acknowledging those criticisms. After listing aspects of the game that needed work, he offered a pledge to fans: that Bioware would complete “fundamental work… to bring out the full potential of the experience… specifically working to reinvent the core gameplay loop with clear goals, motivating challenges, and progression with meaningful rewards—while preserving the fun of flying and fighting in a vast science-fantasy setting.”
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