'Anthem NEXT' Development Ends As EA Reassigns BioWare Staff To Other Projects

Roughly two years after the multi-platform release of "Anthem," BioWare announced its next big step. The game studio revealed that its promised rework of the online multiplayer action role-playing title will no longer push through. Although the project has been halted, the developers assured the gamers that its servers will continue to operate.

The initiative was originally dubbed "Anthem NEXT" or "Anthem 2.0" among its players. In an official blog post, BioWare executive producer Christian Dailey extended his gratitude to all those who supported the game since its launch. A section of his statement described the title as "a game that represented a big leap into new territory for us as a studio."

Given that the label was lauded for its work on several critically acclaimed RPGs, including "Baldurs Gate," "Neverwinter Nights" and "Jade Empire," online multiplayer was a big first for it. As such, Shortly after "Anthem" came out in 2019, it was collectively criticized by various publications and gamers alike, Kotaku reported.

BioWare's reputation was also called into question when "Mass Effect: Andromeda" failed to deliver what the franchise's fans wanted. As for "Anthem," despite its critical flaws, some open-minded folks likened it to the rough start Bungie had with "Destiny," which was eventually fixed by updates and regular content drops.

"Since 'Anthem's' launch, the team has been working hard to continually improve the game, releasing multiple updates that brought with them a variety of improvements and introduced new content to play," Dailey shared. "Towards the end of 2019 we expanded on that effort and started working on a more fundamental restructure of the game."

It was also hinted that the staff initially assigned to handle "Anthem NEXT" have been pulled out to help with other major projects, such as "Mass Effect Legendary Edition," "Star Wars: The Old Republic" and the upcoming "Dragon Age" sequel.

News of the overhaul was announced in February 2020 by Casey Hudson, who was working as a general manager at BioWare at that time. Polygon noted that it was likely due to the poor reception of "Anthem" since the game's debut. He, along with executive producer Mike Darrah, officially left the company in December 2021.

It remains to be seen if longtime fans will still stick around now that "Anthem NEXT" is officially dead.