Anthem’s servers shut down permanently on January 12, 2026, just five days from now, marking the end of BioWare’s most infamous failure. But players trying to give the doomed mech shooter one final spin discovered they can’t even download it anymore. Multiple reports from January 5 show the EA app refusing to let owners reinstall Anthem despite promises that anyone who purchased the game could play it until the shutdown date. The EA app simply tells players they “don’t own” the game, or suggests they “get the game” from a store that delisted it back in August 2025.
This final indignity caps off Anthem’s tragic seven-year journey from E3 2017’s promising reveal to complete erasure from existence. EA announced the January 12 shutdown back in July 2025, giving players six months to enjoy their final flights in Javelin mech suits. But now, with just days remaining, some fans who deleted the game to free up hard drive space can’t reinstall it for a proper farewell. The situation highlights everything wrong with always-online games and why the Stop Killing Games campaign resonates so strongly with frustrated gamers.
EA App Blocks Reinstalls Days Before Shutdown
Content creator DansGaming first brought attention to the issue on January 5, 2026, posting screenshots showing the EA app refusing to download Anthem despite owning it. “Anthem is shutting down for good in a week, so I thought I’d play one more time. The EA App won’t even let me download it even though I own it,” he tweeted. YouTuber Luke Stephens encountered identical problems, stating “As others have also reported, EA won’t let me download Anthem, even though it shuts down a week from now. No last hurrah I guess. Crazy that I bought the game and can’t even download it while it’s still, allegedly, alive.”
Players who still have Anthem installed can launch it directly from the executable file, bypassing the EA app entirely. But anyone who uninstalled the game or formatted their PC since August 2025 faces locked-out status. The EA app displays error messages telling players they don’t own the game, despite Anthem sitting in their digital libraries. Some users report the app suggests “getting the game” from the Game Hub, an option that stopped existing when EA delisted Anthem seven months ago.
One workaround emerged for desperate players: purchasing EA Play Pro subscription. Reddit users confirmed that subscribing to the premium tier suddenly makes Anthem downloadable again, suggesting EA deliberately locked the game behind a paywall during its final week. This feels especially cynical given EA’s statement that “if you previously purchased Anthem, the game can still be downloaded from a digital library and played until January 12, 2026.” Technically they never promised it would be free to download, but forcing a subscription fee to access a game players already own during its literal last week of existence crosses into borderline predatory territory.
The Six-Month Death March
EA announced Anthem’s shutdown on July 3, 2025, giving players 193 days to say goodbye. The blog post stated “after careful consideration, we will be sunsetting Anthem on January 12, 2026. This means that the game will still be playable online for the next 180 plus days.” Premium currency purchases stopped immediately, though existing balances remained usable until shutdown. Anthem was removed from EA Play subscription service on August 15, 2025, and delisted from all digital storefronts shortly after.
Game Informer reported that BioWare laid off zero employees as part of the shutdown process, confirming no one had been working on Anthem for years. The game existed in maintenance mode since February 2021 when BioWare canceled the ambitious Anthem 2.0 overhaul that promised to dramatically improve the experience. Resources shifted toward Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the next Mass Effect, leaving Anthem to run on autopilot with skeleton crew server maintenance until EA decided pulling the plug saved enough money to justify the shutdown.
Why Anthem Can’t Be Saved
Unlike recent live service failures like Redfall and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League that received offline patches before shutdown, Anthem will simply cease to exist after January 12. EA’s FAQ states “Anthem was designed to be an online-only title, so once the servers go offline, the game will no longer be playable.” This technical limitation means no private servers, no offline mode, and no preservation of any kind once EA flips the switch.
Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett tested Anthem solo during the shutdown announcement and confirmed the game functions perfectly fine single-player despite being “designed” for co-op. Missions balanced for teams remain challenging but completely beatable alone, raising questions about why EA won’t provide an offline patch. The answer, of course, is money and effort. Making Anthem work offline requires rebalancing encounters, removing always-online checks, and testing everything still functions without server validation. EA sees zero financial incentive to spend resources preserving a failed game that stopped generating revenue years ago.
This contrasts sharply with Bethesda’s handling of Redfall and Rocksteady’s treatment of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Both studios patched offline functionality before shutting servers, allowing players to experience content they purchased even after official support ended. Warner Bros. and Microsoft took financial hits to provide this courtesy. EA chose differently, prioritizing cost savings over customer goodwill for a game that already destroyed BioWare’s reputation and consumer trust.
The Troubled Development and Launch
To understand why Anthem’s shutdown feels inevitable, you need to appreciate its catastrophic development. First revealed at E3 2017 with a stunning trailer showing Javelin-suited Freelancers exploring a hostile alien world, Anthem promised BioWare’s signature storytelling combined with Destiny-style looter shooter mechanics. The reality was far uglier. A 2019 Kotaku investigation revealed Anthem was essentially built during the year before release despite being in formal development since 2012.
The game launched February 22, 2019, in a deeply flawed state. Loading screens lasted minutes, missions bugged out constantly, loot felt unrewarding, endgame content was virtually nonexistent, and technical issues plagued every platform. Game Informer gave it a 7/10, noting how thin content and buggy gameplay made it feel unfinished. Metacritic scores hovered around 60, with user scores even lower. EA and BioWare promised post-launch support would fix everything, but player counts cratered within weeks as people realized Anthem couldn’t be salvaged through patches alone.
The Canceled Anthem 2.0
BioWare attempted a comeback. In October 2020, the studio announced Anthem Next (also called Anthem 2.0), a massive overhaul that would fundamentally redesign loot systems, mission structure, progression, and endgame activities. This wasn’t a patch or expansion, it was essentially rebuilding the game from scratch while keeping existing assets. Development continued for months as a small team worked to deliver the redemption arc players wanted and BioWare desperately needed after Mass Effect: Andromeda’s disappointment in 2017.
On February 24, 2021, BioWare pulled the plug. In a blog post, studio head Christian Dailey explained that “2020 was a year unlike any other however and while we continue to make progress against all our game projects at BioWare, 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.” Translation: fixing Anthem wasn’t worth the resources needed when Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect 5 required all hands on deck.
The cancellation of Anthem 2.0 sealed the game’s fate. Without meaningful updates or content additions, the player base withered to nothing. Servers remained online out of sheer inertia, costing EA money to maintain infrastructure for a game generating zero revenue. The January 2026 shutdown was always coming, it just took EA five more years to admit defeat and stop throwing away server costs on a dead game nobody played.
Stop Killing Games and Digital Preservation
Anthem’s shutdown reignited conversations about the Stop Killing Games campaign, which reached 1 million signatures in July 2025 shortly after EA’s announcement. Created by YouTuber Ross Scott, the initiative aims to make it illegal for publishers to completely shut down purchased games without providing offline modes or community server support. The European Citizens’ Initiative petition argues that rendering purchased products permanently unusable constitutes unfair business practices that should be regulated.
Anthem represents everything Stop Killing Games fights against. Players purchased a $60 product in 2019, and in 2026 that product stops existing entirely through no fault of their own. Unlike traditional games where physical or digital copies remain playable decades later, always-online games become worthless the moment publishers decide servers cost too much to maintain. The fact that EA won’t even let some owners download the game during its final week exemplifies the contempt publishers show toward preservation and consumer rights.
Over 690 people signed a specific petition to save Anthem servers, though that modest number pales compared to Stop Killing Games’ million-plus supporters. The broader movement has gained traction from high-profile YouTubers like Jacksepticeye, penguinz0, and Ludwig who recognize the threat always-online requirements pose to gaming history. Ross Scott spent months lobbying EU governments, though the campaign’s ultimate success remains uncertain as regulatory bodies slowly process the petition.
EA’s 2026 Purge Continues
Anthem isn’t EA’s only January 2026 casualty. The Sims Mobile shuts down January 24, 2026, after seven years of operation, taking all player progress and purchases into the void. NBA Live 19 closes January 30, 2026, marking the definitive end of EA’s basketball franchise after being shelved indefinitely in favor of licensing FIFA-style annual releases. All three games follow the same pattern: delisted months earlier, premium purchases disabled, then complete shutdown with zero offline functionality.
These January closures represent just the latest wave in EA’s aggressive server termination campaign. The publisher shut down 23 games in 2025 alone, including FIFA 23 on December 12 and racing title Grid on December 19. Industry observers point to mounting server maintenance costs and expiring licensing agreements as primary motivations, though EA reported $7.46 billion revenue in fiscal year 2025 despite a 1.3% decline. The company can absolutely afford to maintain servers, they simply choose not to when games stop generating microtransaction revenue.
This scorched-earth approach to legacy titles burns goodwill faster than EA can rebuild it. Players who purchased The Sims Mobile content or NBA Live Ultimate Team packs lost real money investments when servers shut down. Anthem buyers lost their entire $60 purchase. Each shutdown reminds consumers that digital purchases with always-online requirements aren’t really purchases at all, they’re long-term rentals that expire whenever publishers decide maintaining them costs too much.
FAQs About Anthem Server Shutdown
When do Anthem servers shut down?
Anthem’s servers permanently shut down on January 12, 2026. After this date, the game will be completely unplayable with no offline mode or alternative access methods. EA announced the shutdown on July 3, 2025, giving players approximately six months notice.
Why can’t players download Anthem before shutdown?
Multiple players report the EA app refuses to let them reinstall Anthem despite owning it, displaying error messages claiming they don’t own the game or suggesting they purchase it from delisted stores. Some users discovered subscribing to EA Play Pro unlocks downloads, suggesting EA locked the game behind a paywall during its final week.
Will Anthem get an offline mode after shutdown?
No, EA confirmed Anthem will not receive an offline patch. According to the FAQ, “Anthem was designed to be an online-only title, so once the servers go offline, the game will no longer be playable.” Unlike Redfall or Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Anthem will simply cease to exist.
Can players get refunds for Anthem after shutdown?
No, EA is not offering refunds for Anthem purchases made before the shutdown announcement. Players who bought the game in 2019 or later will lose access to their $60 purchase with zero compensation beyond the six-month warning period EA provided.
What happened to Anthem 2.0?
BioWare announced Anthem 2.0 (also called Anthem Next) in October 2020 as a massive overhaul that would fundamentally redesign the game. The project was canceled on February 24, 2021, as BioWare shifted resources toward Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the next Mass Effect game.
Why did Anthem fail so badly?
Anthem launched in February 2019 with thin content, numerous bugs, unrewarding loot systems, and virtually no endgame. A Kotaku investigation revealed the game was largely built during the year before release despite being in development since 2012, resulting in a fundamentally flawed product that couldn’t be fixed through patches.
What other EA games are shutting down in January 2026?
EA is shutting down The Sims Mobile on January 24, 2026, and NBA Live 19 on January 30, 2026. All three games follow the same pattern: delisted months earlier, no offline modes, and complete erasure after shutdown dates.
Will private servers keep Anthem alive?
While some dedicated fans are exploring unofficial server options, Anthem’s complex backend architecture and proprietary EA systems make community-run servers extremely difficult to implement. Unlike simpler games with documented server protocols, Anthem will likely remain unplayable after January 12.
Conclusion
Anthem’s shutdown in five days marks more than just the end of BioWare’s biggest failure. It represents everything wrong with always-online live service games that can disappear forever when publishers decide they’re not worth maintaining. The fact that EA won’t even let some players download the game they purchased during its literal final week adds insult to fatal injury, cementing Anthem’s legacy as a cautionary tale about broken promises, wasted potential, and consumer-hostile business practices. From the promising E3 2017 reveal through the disastrous 2019 launch, the canceled 2.0 overhaul, and now the unceremonious deletion from existence, Anthem never got the redemption arc it needed. Instead, it gets erased from gaming history while EA forces some owners to subscribe to EA Play Pro just to access a game that stops working in days. The Stop Killing Games campaign exists precisely because of situations like this, where $60 purchases become worthless through publisher decisions rather than technical limitations or player disinterest. Anthem could have received an offline patch like Redfall. EA chose not to. Players deserve better than watching games they bought simply vanish, but until regulations force publishers to preserve purchased products, we’ll keep seeing Anthems deleted from existence while fans beg for one last chance to say goodbye.