Darrah has explored the game’s troubled history extensively on his YouTube channel, recently condensing his insights into a comprehensive retrospective. He argued that BioWare’s pivot toward the 2.0 update was “definitely the right call,” noting that the studio should have perhaps abandoned its original, rigid post-launch roadmap even sooner. By focusing on the “act structure” they had promised publicly, the team was distracted from addressing the fundamental flaws that needed fixing from day one.
The Truth About What Happened to Anthem – Complete Retrospective
Darrah believes EA made a strategic error by walking away from the overhaul. He suggested that a more sustainable path for the IP would have involved a transition to current-generation consoles and a shift to “locally hosted servers” to eliminate ongoing maintenance costs.
“Anthem actually had the code for local servers running in a dev environment right up until just before launch,” Darrah revealed. He noted that while the code might be dated, it could have been the key to the game’s longevity. By allowing players to host sessions on their own hardware and introducing AI-controlled teammates, BioWare could have effectively transformed Anthem into a single-player-friendly experience that could live on indefinitely without a massive server budget.
While we will never see the fruit of those labor-intensive plans, it remains a disappointment that Anthem wasn’t afforded the same second chance as titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or No Man’s Sky, which eventually thrived after their own disastrous launches.
Read More: Mark Darrah reflects on the “permanent damage” Anthem caused to developer careers.
Source: gamesradar.com
