There are only 10 days left to play Anthem. On January 12, 2026, Electronic Arts will shut down the servers for BioWare’s ill-fated looter shooter, rendering the online-only game completely unplayable forever. No offline mode, no preservation efforts, no last-minute miracle patch. The game that was supposed to be BioWare’s answer to Destiny and The Division instead becomes another cautionary tale about live service games, broken promises, and what happens when ambition crashes into mismanagement.
The Final Days
EA announced the shutdown back in July 2025, giving players about six months notice. Premium currency purchases were disabled immediately, though existing balances could still be spent. The game was delisted from EA Play on August 15, 2025. And now, as January 2026 begins, the clock is ticking down on what remains of Anthem’s playerbase – the die-hard fans who stuck around despite everything, the curious newcomers trying it for the first time before it disappears, and probably a few achievement hunters desperate to unlock everything before the servers go dark.
According to EA’s FAQ, no layoffs occurred at BioWare as a result of the shutdown, which is about the only good news in this whole situation. But it’s worth noting that EA has laid off thousands of employees across multiple waves in recent years, including hundreds at BioWare specifically. The studio that made Mass Effect and Dragon Age has been hemorrhaging talent, and Anthem’s failure played a significant role in that downward spiral.
What Went Wrong
Anthem’s troubled development has been exhaustively documented, particularly in Jason Schreier’s 2019 Kotaku report that revealed the game was essentially in production limbo for years. BioWare spent from 2012 to 2017 not knowing what kind of game Anthem even was. Features weren’t solidified until the E3 2017 demo, which means most of what shipped in February 2019 was cobbled together in less than two years of actual focused development.
The result was a game that launched in a deeply flawed state. Thin content, repetitive missions, buggy gameplay, unrewarding loot systems, loading screens everywhere, and a campaign that felt completely disconnected from the multiplayer action. Reviews were tepid – Game Informer gave it a 7 out of 10, IGN scored it 6.5 out of 10. Players complained it felt unfinished, which makes sense given that it basically was.
| Timeline | Event |
|---|---|
| 2012 | Anthem enters development at BioWare |
| E3 2017 | Anthem revealed with impressive gameplay demo |
| February 2019 | Game launches to mixed reviews, technical issues |
| October 2020 | Anthem 2.0 overhaul announced |
| February 2021 | Anthem NEXT canceled, development ends |
| July 2025 | Server shutdown announced for January 2026 |
| January 12, 2026 | Servers shut down, game becomes unplayable |
The Anthem NEXT That Never Was
For a brief moment in 2020, it looked like Anthem might pull off a No Man’s Sky-style redemption arc. BioWare announced Anthem NEXT, a massive overhaul designed to fix the core experience. They promised to rebuild loot systems, improve mission variety, add meaningful progression, and basically transform Anthem into the game it should have been at launch. Some fans dared to hope.
Then in February 2021, BioWare pulled the plug. The studio announced it was canceling Anthem NEXT to focus resources on Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the next Mass Effect game. Christian Dailey, then-executive producer, confirmed that active development on Anthem had ended. The game would remain playable with existing content, but no new updates were coming. That was nearly five years ago, and Anthem has been a ghost town ever since.
Why It Deserved Better
Here’s the frustrating thing – beneath all the bugs, thin content, and mismanagement, Anthem actually had some genuinely excellent ideas. The Iron Man-style flight in Javelin exosuits felt incredible. Soaring through the air, dive-bombing enemies, hovering while unleashing abilities – the moment-to-moment movement was some of the best in any third-person shooter. Multiple players have said the next Iron Man game needs to steal Anthem’s flight system, and they’re absolutely right.
The Javelin customization offered meaningful build variety. The world design was gorgeous, even if there wasn’t enough to actually do in it. The core combat loop, when it worked, delivered satisfying power fantasy gameplay. Anthem wasn’t fundamentally broken – it was fundamentally incomplete. Give it another year of development, launch it with twice the content, fix the technical issues, and you might have had a genuine competitor to Destiny.
The Live Service Problem
Anthem’s shutdown highlights everything wrong with live service games. You can still play terrible games from the 1980s if you want – preservation efforts keep them accessible. But Anthem, a game that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and was purchased by millions of players, will simply cease to exist on January 12. If you bought it, too bad. You don’t own it. You never did. You licensed temporary access to EA’s servers, and now that license is expiring.
This exact issue has sparked initiatives like Stop Killing Games, which has gathered over 1 million signatures lobbying governments to protect consumers from losing access to games they purchased. The argument is simple – if you sell someone a product, they should be able to use that product. Developers should be required to either maintain servers or patch in offline functionality before shutdown. Anthem is getting neither.
What Former Developers Are Saying
Mark Darrah, Anthem’s former producer who left BioWare in 2020, gave his take on the shutdown in August 2025. “I always knew it was going to go away eventually,” he said, noting that live service games have limited lifespans. But even he seemed to acknowledge the melancholy of watching something his team worked on for years simply vanish into the digital void.
Some Kotaku writers have pointed out the bitter irony of EA claiming Anthem can’t have an offline mode because it was “designed to be online-only,” while simultaneously pointing out that solo play is perfectly viable for most content. The game doesn’t require multiple players for basic missions. EA just didn’t bother coding in offline functionality because it would cost money to do so, and Anthem isn’t worth the investment anymore.
The Legacy
Anthem sold approximately 5 million copies as of December 2023, falling short of EA’s 6 million target in the first few months. That’s not a catastrophic failure by most standards, but for a game positioned as BioWare’s next big franchise and EA’s answer to successful live service shooters, it was a disappointment. The game’s failure contributed to BioWare’s restructuring, multiple rounds of layoffs, and the studio’s reputation damage that it’s still recovering from today.
Anthem joins an increasingly crowded graveyard of failed live service games – Marvel’s Avengers, Battleborn, Babylon’s Fall, and most infamously, Sony’s Concord, which lasted just two weeks. The message from these failures is clear: players can smell when a live service game is a cynical cash grab versus a genuine attempt to build a lasting community. Anthem might have had good intentions, but seven years of development hell and a rushed final year couldn’t overcome the fundamental problems.
FAQs
When do Anthem’s servers shut down?
Anthem’s servers will shut down permanently on January 12, 2026. After that date, the game will be completely unplayable as it has no offline mode.
Can I still buy Anthem?
No, Anthem was removed from digital storefronts in August 2025. However, if you already own the game, you can still download and play it until the January 12 shutdown.
Will Anthem get an offline mode before shutdown?
No, EA has confirmed that Anthem was “designed to be online-only” and will not receive an offline mode patch before the servers close.
What happened to Anthem 2.0?
Anthem NEXT (also called Anthem 2.0), a massive overhaul designed to fix the game’s core problems, was announced in October 2020 but canceled in February 2021 so BioWare could focus on Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
Did anyone get laid off because of the shutdown?
EA stated that no layoffs occurred at BioWare as a direct result of Anthem’s shutdown. However, the company has laid off thousands of employees in recent years, including hundreds at BioWare.
Why did Anthem fail?
Anthem spent years in development limbo before being rushed together in less than two years. It launched with thin content, repetitive missions, bugs, and unrewarding progression. Despite post-launch updates, the game never recovered from its poor launch.
How many people bought Anthem?
Anthem sold approximately 5 million copies as of December 2023, falling short of EA’s initial target of 6 million in the first few months.
What other EA games are shutting down in January 2026?
EA is also shutting down The Sims Mobile and NBA Live 19 in January 2026, with more closures planned for March. The company shut down 23 games in 2025 alone.
Conclusion
Anthem’s shutdown on January 12, 2026, marks the end of one of BioWare’s most painful chapters. It’s a game that promised the world – literally, with that stunning E3 2017 reveal – and delivered a fraction of it. The flight mechanics were brilliant. The world was gorgeous. The potential was obvious. But potential doesn’t matter when development is hell, management is confused, and the final product launches incomplete. What makes this shutdown particularly bitter is knowing that Anthem could have been something special with more time and better leadership. Instead, it becomes another statistic in the live service graveyard, another reminder that you don’t actually own digital games, and another black mark on BioWare’s once-sterling reputation. Ten days from now, Anthem will be gone. Not preserved, not archived, not made available offline – just gone. That’s the future of gaming if we don’t demand better from publishers and platform holders. Anthem deserved better than this ending, and so do the players who supported it.