EA made the announcement today that redevelopment of Anthem, dubbed “Anthem NEXT”, has been scrapped. The original action-RPG was released in 2019 and the launch was rocky at best. BioWare had vowed to update the game, making it more enjoyable, but the company has since decided to halt production altogether.
Executive Producer Christian Daily posted today about the direction the company has chosen to move with the game. The company decided toward the end of 2019 to restructure Anthem. Since then, they have released sneak peaks of the developers work through social media, and they were happy with the reactions they were getting from fans. However, with the current global pandemic, working from home took its toll on BioWare, and they couldn’t meet demands on all the projects they currently have in the works.
Needless to say, fans of Anthem are not pleased. Many took to Twitter to rant, demanding refunds, and attacking BioWare for using the pandemic as a cop out for a failed project. Others are saying the company is done after it already failed to deliver on big titles like Mass Effect: Andromeda. EA is also being blamed for rushing their developers, overloading them with new content.
The team working on Anthem will now be put toward the sequel to Dragon Age which they announced in 2020. Dailey mentioned Mass Effect and Star Wars: The Old Republic receiving more attention as well. The fans of Anthem won’t be completely disappointed though, even though Anthem NEXT has been scrapped, BioWare announced the Anthem live service will remain running as it is today.
