There are only a few days left before Anthem becomes unavailable. On January 12, 2026, Electronic Arts will shut down the servers of BioWare’s multiplayer game, putting a definitive end to a project that never managed to live up to the expectations created around it.

The date isn’t exactly a surprise. EA had already confirmed last summer that Anthem would come to an end, but as is usual in these cases, the end seemed to be a long way off. Now that there are less than two weeks left until the end of the game, the closure is a reality that is difficult to ignore for those who still connect to the servers.

As it is an exclusively online game, the closure of the servers means that Anthem can no longer be played, even for those who purchased it. This is one of the most discussed topics in the games-as-a-service model, especially for paid titles that disappear without any offline alternative. Campaigns such as Stop Destroying Games or Stop Killing Games have tried to extend this discussion to the political sphere, fighting for legislation that protects access to purchased games.

On the publishers’ side, the issue is less simple than it seems. Maintaining active servers has a cost, and when a game no longer has an important player base, something that Anthem never managed to achieve, it is difficult to justify maintaining it financially. The idea of making code available for the community to maintain their own servers is an idea that has been frequently mentioned, but in practice it involves technical, legal and security difficulties that are rarely viable.

The closure of Anthem also has a symbolic weight in the history of BioWare. The studio, known above all for creating solo narrative experiences, invested heavily in a multiplayer game at a time when this type of project was greatly encouraged by the industry. The result was a title that tried to make two identities compatible, BioWare’s DNA and a game-as-a-service model, without managing to impose itself on either of them.

There were even plans for an ambitious rebuild, known as Anthem 2.0, which aimed to almost completely overhaul the game. But these plans ended up being cancelled, putting an end to the project.

Anthem’s problems added to the difficulties already existing with Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017, which left the studio in a delicate position for several years. Not even the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard in 2024, after a long and problematic development, was able to completely reverse this perception.

Now all eyes are on the next Mass Effect, which is still in development. The success or failure of this game could be definitive for the future of BioWare, as EA is undergoing major strategic changes and possible changes to its shareholder structure.

With the closure of the servers about to happen, Anthem officially enters the list of games that marked an era, mainly for the lessons it left rather than the impact it managed to have on players.

Source: https://www.eurogamer.pt/anthem-prepara-se-para-desaparecer-com-o-encerramento-dos-servidores

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