It has been announced by EA that Anthem will be sunsetted, with the game’s servers scheduled to be shut down on January 12, 2026, rendering the online-only title unplayable.
In anticipation of this, both Anthem and its premium currency have been taken off sale.
This decision comes “After careful consideration” and provides approximately six months’ notice of the impending shutdown. The BioWare Team expresses their gratitude, stating, “We deeply appreciate your dedication, passion, and support throughout the years, and we thank you for that.”
I must admit, I am somewhat surprised that EA kept the servers operational for this long, especially considering Anthem’s status as one of the most notable failures of the past decade.
Following a turbulent development process, Anthem was launched on February 22, 2019, to a largely negative reception, plagued by performance issues, bugs, and a lack of excitement compared to its competitors like Destiny 2 and The Division. Reports of the game’s troubled development at BioWare surfaced immediately, with the company facing backlash after announcing significant delays to the Act 1 roadmap.
As development responsibilities shifted to BioWare Austin, it took six months before the game’s first major event, Cataclysm, was introduced, along with smaller seasonal in-game events. It became evident that a major overhaul was needed to breathe new life into the game, with hopes pinned on Anthem NEXT. However, these plans were derailed by the slow pace of development during the 2020 pandemic, ultimately leading EA to pull the plug in 2021, around the game’s second anniversary.
This effectively marked the end of Anthem’s journey, and it is hard to imagine many players engaging with the game over the past five years. It would not have been surprising if the servers had been shut down as early as 2022 or 2023.
The silver lining is that for those interested in experiencing a game with exhilarating Iron Man-style flight mechanics, there is still time to enjoy Anthem until the end of this year.
Source: EA
