Time for Freelancers to Say Goodbye as BioWare Drops Plans for Anthem 2.0

It's time to say goodbye.
It's time to say goodbye. BioWare

If you’re one of those excited to learn more about Anthem 2.0, then we have some really bad news for you. It appears that BioWare is dropping the project altogether and moving on to new ones. The only good news, if you can call it that, is that the game is set to stay online in its current state.

Expectation vs Reality

When the game was first announced, there was a lot of excitement. Not surprising considering that BioWare had just released Mass Effect: Andromeda. Despite the hype, the game faced multiple problems from day one and the poor reviews didn’t help.

To be fair though, BioWare did what it could to keep things moving. A month after its launch, for example, the developer issued a statement stating that the game was here to stay amidst the different criticisms. Proof of this was the different updates released which introduced new content. The game even gave everyone new items as part of its first anniversary.

The Silent Treatment

After the anniversary, things became a bit silent. Sometime in May, BioWare announced the planned redesigning of Anthem and admitted that it was going to be a “long process.”

Just before 2020 ended, an announcement was made that gave a bit of hope to players. The “reboot” was confirmed and the game was being named Anthem 2.0. In particular, the team working on the game was looking in the Javelin Gameplay and Build along with Skill Trees and Artifacts.

Around two weeks ago, several reports were going around that EA was coming up with a decision on what to do with the game. A week passed and another week followed but no word came from EA at all.

Goodbye Freelancers

It looks like we now know what that decision could possibly mean. Christian Dailey at BioWare issued a statement that while the decision was indeed difficult, there was no other recourse but to stop the development of Anthem 2.0, which the team was calling Anthem NEXT. Already a difficult process, the development was hampered even more by the pandemic that impacted the productivity of the team and added undue stress to everyone.

As part of this decision, the team will now focus on the upcoming Dragon Age title. They’re also going to work on the new Mass Effect as well as Star Wars: The Old Republic.

So what do you think? Did BioWare make the right decision in canceling its work on Anthem 2.0?

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