BioWare’s Anthem has now officially shut up shop, and in wake of the game’s closure its executive producer, Mark Darrah, has provided a detailed post-mortem video explaining what happened with the ill-fated loot-shooter.
Darrah’s video chronicles game’s entire history, offering insight into its development and how it was pitched to EA by Casey Hudson, the then-head of BioWare, as a “new BioWare.” This involved taking the studio’s trademark narrative chops and implementing them into a live service product, instead of the traditional single-player experience BioWare fans were used to at the time.
You can watch the video below.
Anthem was released in February 2019 for PS4, PC, and Xbox One, and was a hugely ambitious project that was seen as EA’s answer to Destiny, the share-world shooter released by Bungie in 2014. Unfortunately, the project was met with lukewarm reviews and was seen as undercooked and lacking identity, although BioWare had pledged to overhaul the project with Anthem 2.0.
Unfortunately this wasn’t to be, as after a meeting with EA and BioWare executives in February 2021, it was confirmed that these efforts would be discontinued. Back in July last year, EA confirmed that Anthem would be taken offline in January 2026, and sure enough, the plug was pulled yesterday.
Set on the world of Coda, Anthem saw players taking on the role of exosuit-wearing adventures known as Freelancers, who are tasked with defending humanity from threats beyond the city walls. At the core of the narrative is the Anthem of Creation, a mysterious and powerful force that is responsible for the technology and threats throughout the game world, which the main villain, Monitor, looks to seize for their own nefarious plans.
[Source – Anthem Post-Mortem via VGC]