Anthem is coming to an end. When it was revealed, Electronic Arts touted it as gaming’s next big thing. It was BioWare’s post-Mass-Effect glow, a sci-fi shooter with a paradigm-shifting goal to bring players together in a world as well-realized and strongly written as anything the developer had ever delivered.
Not only did that never quite materialize, but BioWare has been in for a pretty significant rough patch concerning public perception both before its launch and certainly thereafter. Anthem’s story, in my view and that of many others, was about as hamstrung by the creators’ live-service aims as any of us could have predicted. Say what you will for it all, however, but if there’s one thing Anthem got right, it’s that “Iron Man” sensation.
We’re perilously close to the final chance we’ll ever have to experience peak suited-up flight mechanics, so whether you’ve never given Anthem a shot or you just want to be there for one last ride, consider this a public disclaimer: go play.
Everything Ends
To be clear, we’ve known this was coming. Electronic Arts broke the news over half a year ago. Since then, and I’m completely guessing here, but there have probably been hundreds – thousands! – of new players out there who gave Anthem a twirl or two. That’s not exactly big numbies, but Anthem was basically canceled years ago. It’s not like EA is including it in shareholder meeting footnote sections.
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Given the radio silence, Anthem’s January 12 end-of-service date probably won’t come with any grand sendoff. Possibly not even a small one. Maybe there’s an advertising opportunity in here somewhere for a quick PR note about how proud they are of the team, the players, and viewers like you. Heck if I know.
But, yeah. It’s almost gone. Sunsetted, as tech companies like to say. Flying off, Javelin and all, straight into the sun. There’s a joke in here about BioWare being Icarus, but it’s in poor taste, so don’t repeat it – people worked hard on this game. Let’s remember that.
And if you feel like it, go play Anthem. If you still can. You can’t actually buy it anymore, but maybe you bought it earlier? Maybe you played it, enjoyed it, had a blast? Or just scooped it up when it was on sale for an absurdly low price, which happened often. Or you can give it a ten-hour trial if you’ve got PlayStation Plus. You do you. Personally, I’m not going to bother, but if you want to go out there and post cool screenshots of that one last ride, maybe I’ll check ‘em out. I’ll always have a strange soft spot for this game.
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