Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Electronic Arts executives are preparing to study the current status of the Anthem reboot and decide whether to continue the process or pull the plug. The results of that study were announced today, and BioWare confirmed that work on Anthem Next has been suspended.

"However, 2020 is an unusual year, and while we continue to make progress on all of BioWare's game projects, telecommuting during the pandemic has impacted productivity and not everything we had planned as a studio prior to COVID-19 can be accomplished without undue stress on the team. Not everything we had planned as a studio prior to COVID-19 can be accomplished without undue stress on our team," wrote Christian Dailey, BioWare Austin Studio Director.

"We know we will disappoint the community of Anthem players who were looking forward to seeing the improvements we have been working on. It is also disappointing for the team, who have done a fantastic job. And for me personally, Anthem is what drew me to BioWare, and the last two years have been the most challenging and rewarding experience of my career."

However, the end of Anthem's development does not mean the end of the game: Dailey said that BioWare will continue to run Anthem "as it is today."

Despite some pre-release issues, Anthem came on strong and was the best-selling game in February 2019. However, it quickly flagged, not only because of bugs, but also because it was "terribly boring and sparse," the kind of problem that a simple patch could not fix, and was clearly problematic just a few months after its release. according to NPD figures (via VentureBeat), that year it was the 15th overall It ended up being the 15th best-selling game of all time.

While it may be disappointing to some diehard fans, the end of Anthem's development is really no surprise; Dailey took the helm of Dragon Age 4 late last year following Mark Darrah's abrupt departure, but for BioWare, " That is clearly a higher priority than the not-quite-guaranteed return of "Anthem". The studio has also begun work on the long-awaited new "Mass Effect," which is an equally large undertaking.

Dailey confirmed that BioWare is prioritizing these two games, saying, "While we continue to provide high-quality updates to Star Wars: The Old Republic, we need to laser-focus our efforts as a studio and strengthen the upcoming Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles need to be strengthened."

"Thank you to the Anthem community for your passion and creativity. On a personal note, your kindness and encouragement was much needed last year."

Our own "Anthem" review for 2019 is "Too many loose threads, always asking myself 'why?' ......" We conclude. As a live-service game, it is reasonable to expect Anthem to change as significantly as Destiny 2, The Division, and Warframe; BioWare certainly seems eager to respond quickly to feedback, which is to be expected. But I'm not going to hold my breath.