“It Was Fun Until the Very End”: One Week Before Shutdown, Anthem Players Gather for One Last Flight

EA is shutting down the servers of Anthem on January 12, but players are already running into access issues. Owners of the Deluxe Edition on PC report that they can no longer download the game — instead, they receive a message stating that they don’t own a license, with a prompt to purchase it from the EA store.

One week ahead of the official shutdown, fans of BioWare’s shooter are gathering on Reddit to say goodbye.

Despite the issues, some players have still managed to get into the game — mostly owners of the standard edition on PC and consoles. In the comments, users have already been joking: “You paid for Deluxe Edition early access to play sooner, and now your game is being taken away sooner too.”

Anthem launched in 2019, attempting to combine BioWare’s traditional narrative strengths with Destiny-style loot mechanics. The game received the lowest Metacritic score in the studio’s history — 54. Despite the criticism, a small but dedicated community formed around the project, praising its combat system and flight mechanics.

Anthem is no longer available for official purchase — it has been removed from all storefronts. Console copies can still be found on the secondary market, while PC keys are available on resale sites for around $5. Fans are asking EA to release an offline patch to preserve at least part of the game, but hopes remain slim.

Anthem sold roughly 5 million copies, and all buyers will soon lose access. The project has become a textbook example of what can happen when a respected studio tries to force itself into a live-service model — and a frequent argument in favor of initiatives like Stop Killing Games, which advocate for consumer rights and the preservation of games that developers abandon and ultimately take away from players.