EA is shutting down the servers for Anthem today, January 12, 2026. Because BioWare's shooter only works online, nobody will be able to play it after that, including people who bought it.
EA announced the date on July 3, 2025, saying the decision came "after careful consideration." Its FAQ is clear about what that means: Anthem was designed as an online-only game, so it can't be played once the servers are gone. EA has not said at what time on January 12 the servers will go offline.
The game has been winding down since that announcement. EA pulled Anthem and its paid in-game currency from sale right away, though players could keep spending the currency they already had. On August 15, 2025, Anthem also left the EA Play subscription, so since then only people who own the game have been able to download and play it. EA has also said the shutdown has not led to any layoffs.
In Anthem, players were Freelancers who flew across an alien world in armored suits and fought alongside other players. The game launched in February 2019 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and got a poor reception, with complaints about bugs, performance and repetitive gameplay.
BioWare announced a long-term redesign in February 2020, known as Anthem NEXT. The plan was to keep the flying and combat players liked and rework much of the rest. A year later, BioWare stopped that work, saying that working from home during the pandemic had slowed the studio down. It said it would keep the game running "as it exists today."
In the last days before the shutdown, fans on the Anthem subreddit have been posting clips of their final flights and saying goodbye to their squads.
A bad ending for players who paid for Anthem
For players, this is a rough deal. They paid for Anthem, and after today they can't play it at all, not even on their own. It's also a sad way to go for the people at BioWare who built it.
Hopefully this doesn't become the normal way online games end, especially as long as new games keep shipping with an online requirement. The best outcome would have been some way to keep Anthem playable offline.
