Bioware stops work on Anthem
Refresh of live service shooter abandoned as studio re-focuses on Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars: The Old Republic
Bioware has given up on Anthem.
In a blog post today, executive producer Christian Dailey said that the studio has halted development on Anthem and a proposed refresh of the game called Anthem Next.
Dailey didn't give a reason for the decision, other than to say the COVID-19 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."
"Game development is hard," Dailey said. "Decisions like these are not easy. Moving forward, we need to laser focus our efforts as a studio and strengthen the next Dragon Age, and Mass Effect titles while continuing to provide quality updates to Star Wars: The Old Republic."
While development work on Anthem has stopped, Dailey said the game's live services will continue to run.
Anthem originally launched in February of 2019 to mixed reviews, and it fell short of sales expectations.
After Anthem's first year, BioWare said it wanted to reinvent the core gameplay loop, and last May the studio said it was creating an "incubation team" of about 30 people to "take our time and go back to the drawing board."