Anthem reboot cancelled, game will stay as-is with no future updates

Anthem's anticipated reboot has been cancelled, and BioWare has moved on to Mass Effect and Dragon Age, the developer today announced.

BioWare has officially scrapped its plans for Anthem NEXT and the game will now remain as-is without any future updates, similar to Battlefront II. EA is now pushing BioWare towards less risky franchises like Dragon Age and Mass Effect, both of which have new games in development.

The news comes after months of concept development for Anthem NEXT from a small crew or designers. EA ultimately made the call to jettison the risky IP despite sinking valuable R&D costs over the last four years (not unlike how it jettisoned many Star Wars games including multiple EA Vancouver titles).

"Game development is hard. 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,"said BioWare's Chris Dailey.

The reality Anthem was a risky bet from the get-go. BioWare wasn't ready for a live service game, especially not one that aimed to be the next Destiny. It also didn't help that BioWare is shedding lots of talented developers who have been with the company as long as multiple decades.

The developer's ruthless crunch culture and mismanagement has affected multiple games including the troubled Dragon Age Inquisition and aforementioned Anthem, and moving to a more regular cadence seems to be the best move. Working on too many projects at once has gotten BioWare into big trouble in the past.