Anthem will not receive an overhaul, as BioWare has shut down development on Anthem Next. The studio says that the live service game will remain online in its current state for now, though it won’t receive new improvements.
Last year, BioWare announced its intention to overhaul the game with a 2.0 update. In recent weeks, reports surfaced that EA planned to assess the current state of the game and make a call on whether or not it would continue forward. BioWare formally announced that development on the project has ended through a blog post.
“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). We will, however, continue to keep the Anthem live service running as it exists today,” BioWare said.
BioWare cites the coronavirus pandemic as part of the reason why the project is ending. “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.”
The studio says it’s now focusing its efforts on other BioWare projects such as the new Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles, as well as improvements to Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Anthem was considered a commercial and critical flop when it launched in 2019. The live service game failed to meet EA’s 6 million-copy target within a month of its launch, prompting the company to retool BioWare’s approach to the game.
