How Anthem Died and Almost Took BioWare With It

Anthem is now offline forever. In this exclusive postmortem, BioWare Executive Producer Mark Darrah explains what really happened to Anthem, what Anthem NEXT was supposed to be, and how the game’s failure reshaped Dragon Age Veilguard Mass Effect 5 and the future of BioWare.This Anthem retrospective covers the internal fallout from BioWare’s live-service experiment, why Anthem NEXT was canceled, and how its collapse changed the studio’s future RPGs. Featuring candid insight from BioWare insider Mark Darrah, this interview connects the dots between Anthem, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect in a way that has never been publicly explained.If you’ve ever wondered why BioWare feels different after Anthem, this is the real story of how Anthem died and what it left behind.(00:00) Intro(01:56) How Mark feels Now That it's Gone(03:00) Will EA Bring Anthem Back?(04:26) No One Played It Before Launch?(07:40) What Would Have Saved Anthem?(09:00) Secrets Ruined Anthem(12:05) The Flight Problem(13:45) Was Jason Schreier Right?(15:15) Casey's Vision was Unrealistic(18:55) Why Not Call Casey?(19:28) Threatened by Leadership(23:25) Who Was Really in Charge(24:20) BioWare Leverage Lost(28:05) Anthem NEXT (29:45) Was Anthem Profitable?(31:20) What was Anthem NEXT?(32:15) Dedicated vs P2P Servers Killed Anthem(33:55) Anthem Affect on Dragon Age(35:55) Will Anthem Hurt Mass Effect 5?(37:40) Setting the Record Straight