A few days ago, EA shut down the servers for "Anthem", the multiplayer action/RPG developed by Bioware. In a sense it's a game the game
--launched in 2019-- lasted as long as it did. Although its
minute-to-minute mechanics (the flying, the combat) were praised,
everything else about the game was panned, and it never took off the
way EA expected it to. And after Ubisoft, EA has always been quickest
to kill a game that under performs.

So they killed the server and with that prevented anyone interested in
the game from ever playing it again... just the sort of thing the
"Stop Killing Games" folks hate. But it turns out, Anthem may only be
/mostly/ dead. Because only a few days after EA Old Yeller'd the game,
fans managed to get it running again.*

Well, mostly. It's running on a private server with two players in the
same instance, and various features (such as looking at your profile
and the campaign) not yet working. Still, if you don't care about that
stuff, this would be a way for you to experience the run-n-gun action
once again. Or it would, if the hack was being made accessible to the
public... which it isn't. At least not yet.

The thing is, this just shows how low effort it would be for companies
like EA to 'keep games alive' if they really wanted. Nobody expects EA
to keep footing the bill for the servers indefinitely, but opening the
code so fans can keep playing? If a single hacker in his bedroom can
do it in a few days, then EA --with staff and access to the source
code-- could probably knock out in a weekend. Or, you know, program
that capability into the code while developing the game, knowing full
well that one day they /will/ kill the game.

But of course, it's easier and cheaper NOT to do that, especially
since the only ones who will really pay for this laziness is those
silly customers who keep giving AAA publishers their money. And who
cares what THOSE guys want, right? Customers; it's not like their
wants and desires are of any importance!

I'd say EA should be embarrassed and ashamed... except its obvious
they lost the ability to do that... well, actually I'm not sure they
ever had that ability. But it does prove how dishonest they are being
when AAA publishers claim it would just be too much work for them that
they'd never be able to stay in business were we all to demand they
provide server code after a game's shutdown. It's bullshit, we know
it's bullshit, and even THEY know its bullshit (an EA producer even
made a pitch about how EA could inexpensively transition the game into single-player if they really wanted**). But here's more evidence to
their dishonesty.




----
** Anthem lives again https://kotaku.com/anthem-revival-private-servers-shutdown-bioware-fan-2000661358
** Salvaging Anthem https://kotaku.com/anthem-single-player-offline-mode-bioware-ea-mark-darrah-2000659773



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 21:47 this Wednesday (GMT):

A few days ago, EA shut down the servers for "Anthem", the multiplayer action/RPG developed by Bioware. In a sense it's a game the game
--launched in 2019-- lasted as long as it did. Although its
minute-to-minute mechanics (the flying, the combat) were praised,
everything else about the game was panned, and it never took off the
way EA expected it to. And after Ubisoft, EA has always been quickest
to kill a game that under performs.

So they killed the server and with that prevented anyone interested in
the game from ever playing it again... just the sort of thing the
"Stop Killing Games" folks hate. But it turns out, Anthem may only be /mostly/ dead. Because only a few days after EA Old Yeller'd the game,
fans managed to get it running again.*

I'm so dissapointed this didn't happen to Concord, not for the actual
game, but it would've been an incredible Monty Python reference.

Well, mostly. It's running on a private server with two players in the
same instance, and various features (such as looking at your profile
and the campaign) not yet working. Still, if you don't care about that
stuff, this would be a way for you to experience the run-n-gun action
once again. Or it would, if the hack was being made accessible to the public... which it isn't. At least not yet.

The thing is, this just shows how low effort it would be for companies
like EA to 'keep games alive' if they really wanted. Nobody expects EA
to keep footing the bill for the servers indefinitely, but opening the
code so fans can keep playing? If a single hacker in his bedroom can
do it in a few days, then EA --with staff and access to the source
code-- could probably knock out in a weekend. Or, you know, program
that capability into the code while developing the game, knowing full
well that one day they /will/ kill the game.

But of course, it's easier and cheaper NOT to do that, especially
since the only ones who will really pay for this laziness is those
silly customers who keep giving AAA publishers their money. And who
cares what THOSE guys want, right? Customers; it's not like their
wants and desires are of any importance!

Also the probably don't want to share their shoddy code.

I'd say EA should be embarrassed and ashamed... except its obvious
they lost the ability to do that... well, actually I'm not sure they
ever had that ability. But it does prove how dishonest they are being
when AAA publishers claim it would just be too much work for them that
they'd never be able to stay in business were we all to demand they
provide server code after a game's shutdown. It's bullshit, we know
it's bullshit, and even THEY know its bullshit (an EA producer even
made a pitch about how EA could inexpensively transition the game into single-player if they really wanted**). But here's more evidence to
their dishonesty.

----
** Anthem lives again https://kotaku.com/anthem-revival-private-servers-shutdown-bioware-fan-2000661358
** Salvaging Anthem https://kotaku.com/anthem-single-player-offline-mode-bioware-ea-mark-darrah-2000659773

--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:00:09 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 21:47 this Wednesday (GMT):

But of course, it's easier and cheaper NOT to do that, especially
since the only ones who will really pay for this laziness is those
silly customers who keep giving AAA publishers their money. And who
cares what THOSE guys want, right? Customers; it's not like their
wants and desires are of any importance!

Also the probably don't want to share their shoddy code.

Heh.

As has also been frequently mentioned, it's also an issue of licensed
code. It's quite possible they were using third-party software to
handle the networking, and either didn't have access to the source
code directly or didn't have permission to share it and make it
available to the public. But if a kid in his garage could work around
that in a weekend, EA could have ripped out the licensed stuff and
replaced it with homebrew stuff. It doesn't even have to be perfect
and bug-free; just enough so the fans can get use it to bootstrap
their own replacement.

But the publishers don't bother with even that. Not because they can't
or even because it would be too costly... but because they don't have
to. And even worse, they then stand in the way of fans trying to
revive these games. It's more advantageous to them to just kill the
game. Not only does it force players to newer titles, there's always
the opportunity to resell the old game in five or ten years.

I'd say EA should be embarrassed and ashamed... except its obvious
they lost the ability to do that... well, actually I'm not sure they
ever had that ability. But it does prove how dishonest they are being
when AAA publishers claim it would just be too much work for them that
they'd never be able to stay in business were we all to demand they
provide server code after a game's shutdown. It's bullshit, we know
it's bullshit, and even THEY know its bullshit (an EA producer even
made a pitch about how EA could inexpensively transition the game into
single-player if they really wanted**). But here's more evidence to
their dishonesty.




----
** Anthem lives again
https://kotaku.com/anthem-revival-private-servers-shutdown-bioware-fan-2000661358
** Salvaging Anthem
https://kotaku.com/anthem-single-player-offline-mode-bioware-ea-mark-darrah-2000659773

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)