Former BioWare Executive Producer Breaks Down 'What Really Happened' to Anthem

Former BioWare Executive Producer Breaks Down 'What Really Happened' to Anthem

Last month, EA announced it would shut down BioWare's Anthem on January 12, 2026. And now, after a rocky six years for the game, its executive producer Mark Darrah has come forward to share details on exactly how Anthem came to be, and what went wrong in the process.

Anthem’s Mark Darrah discusses the early pitfalls of its BioWare development and initial identity crisis

While we would prefer that Anthem remain playable and not face the executioner’s axe, the fact is that it will do so next year, which leads us to wonder just what really happened to cause things to go the way they did. And it’s that morbid curiosity with which we look at the first of […]

Anthems Troubled Early Development and EAs Shift Toward Live-Service Games re-enact review by Mark Darrah

Anthem's early development was riddled with controversy, as it explored a series of critical decisions made by EA and BioWare executives. Darrah's...

Anthem's former executive producer says BioWare was so good at telling stories that its original Anthem pitch convinced EA to greenlight a game it couldn't deliver: 'Maybe there wasn't anything behind the very evocative statement'

Never write a check you can't cash.

Former Bioware producer explains why Anthem failed

When Anthem launched six years ago, it came with sky-high ambitions. But the game that was supposed to be EA and BioWare's next big thing fell far short of expectations. After years of treading water, Anthem will shut down for good early next year. It's now reduced to a mere footnote in gaming history, a messy, tumultuous tale of what could have been, a story now (almost) fully told by the game's former executive producer Mark Darrah in a length…