2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
EA's Failed Live-Service Shooter 'Anthem' To Shut Down Jan 2026
Electronic Arts (EA) has hammered in the final nail in Anthem's coffin, as BioWare's failed 2019 live-service looter shooter will officially shut down on 12 January 2026.
Due to the title's online-only nature, this means that the game will be completely unplayable after its servers are taken offline, making it truly a dead game. Premium in-game currency has stopped being sold since 3 July, as though anyone is still buying those anyway, and the game will be removed from the EA Play library on 15 August this year, although it will still be available to download for those who already own the title, until its servers shut down next year.
'After careful consideration, we will be sunsetting Anthem on 12 January 2026,' wrote the BioWare team on a post announcing the game's shuttering. 'This means that the game will still be playable online for the next 180+ days. As of today, you can no longer purchase in-game premium currency, but you can still use your remaining balance until the servers go offline.'
In a short Q&A accompanying the post, the team clarified that 'the sunsetting of Anthem has not led to any layoffs', which at least comes as a relief given that EA has gone through a series of massive layoffs over the past few years, including axing 50 jobs at BioWare in 2023, laying off around 670 staff and cancelling a Star Wars FPS title in 2024, and most recently, cutting around 400 positions an scrapping two more games in the works, including an extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe.
Anthem joins the long list of failed live-service titles over the past few years, such as Crystal Dynamics' 2020 action-adventure title Marvel's Avengers or PlatinumGames's 2022 RPG, Babylon's Fall , further cementing how blindly adopting the format, either due to greed or to chase industry trends, can and most likely will spell disaster for even the most respected game studios.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. Anthem BioWare Electronic Arts Live Service Games
