The BioWare veteran believes Anthem Next would have been a No Man's Sky-esque comeback for the game

The shutdown of Anthem's servers has sparked a revival of discussion about BioWare's failed live-services pivot, with longtime defenders of the game signing their praises and veterans of the project coming out to explain where Anthem went wrong.

BioWare veteran and Dragon Age co-creator Mark Darrah recently released an extensive video about his experience with Anthem, a project he led during the final sixteen months of the game's development cycle.

In an interview with Destin Legarie, Darrah spoke more about Anthem Next, the name given to the post-release development of Anthem by BioWare in an attempt to revive the title. Anthem Next was officially scrapped in 2021, and only a fraction of the team's work was ultimately added to Anthem.

Legarie asks Darrah a question: Would Anthem Next have sparked a “No Man's Sky” level of comeback for the beloved live service? Darrah responds by saying, “It could have been.”

No Man's Sky's launch was notorious for over-promising and under-delivering, but Hello Games has spent the last decade releasing free expansions for the game that have gradually turned it into a universally loved title.

The next could have changed Anthem's fate

In the aforementioned video, Darrah firmly states his belief that EA suspending development of Anthem Next was a “mistake” by the publisher.

The 2021 statement from BioWare on Anthem Next doesn't specify whose decision the cancellation was, but you immediately get the sense that the studio didn't fully support the decision.

“I know this will be disappointing for the community of Anthem players who have been excited to see the improvements we've been working on. It's also disappointing for the team who did a brilliant job. And for me [Christian Dailey] personally, Anthem is what brought me to BioWare, and the past two years have been some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my career.”

Unfortunately, Anthem will never make a comeback as the game has ended forever, and BioWare has been reduced to a skeleton team working on the next installment of Mass Effect. The failure of Anthem may be the domino that caused the cascade that eventually shuts down BioWare, but I'm hoping for a legendary revival from a legendary studio.