The restart of the multiplayer shooter Anthem will not take place. Electronic Arts has abandoned the project that BioWare studio has been working on since 2019. Now the developers will focus on the new Dragon Age and Mass Effect, as well as updates for Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Two weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that EA may close the development of the updated Anthem. The publisher did not comment on that information, but yesterday he really said there would be no restart of the problematic shooter.
According to the studio’s executive producer Christian Dailey, the cancellation of Anthem NEXT is related to the COVID-19 pandemic. They say that working in a remote format reduced the productivity of developers, and the stress due to the coronavirus did not allow them to fulfill all their plans.
Making games is difficult. And such decisions (like closing Anthem NEXT) are not easy. In the future, we intend to pay more attention to the next Dragon Age and Mass Effect games. At the same time, we will continue to release high-quality updates for Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Executive Producer of BioWare
Recall that Anthem was released in February 2019 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. The game was coolly received by the audience, so after a barrage of criticism, the developers decided to rework the title. The new version of Anthem was supposed to be significantly different from its predecessor. It was planned to change loot, weapons, skill system, gameplay elements and much more.
Despite the cancellation of Anthem NEXT, the studio is still going to support the game as it is today.