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Forget Dragon Age and Mass Effect 5 for a minute, this Anthem dev would 'love' another shot at BioWare's doomed co-op game

Former lead producer of Anthem Ben Irving expressed his desire to reboot the failed live service game, highlighting its remaining potential despite its troubled launch and subsequent cancellation of its revamp, 'Anthem Next.'

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard and, to a lesser extent, Mass Effect 5 might be front and centre in everyone's minds right now, but Anthem's lead producer would "love" to return to the studio's failed live service game.

In hindsight, Anthem's doomed release should have been obvious to everyone involved. Some BioWare fans were already trepidatious about the storied RPG studio  pivoting into live service, co-op focused, looter shooter territory with a game that had way more in common with Destiny than Mass Effect. Reports of a troubled development raised more eyebrows. And then, of course, the game itself launched with long load times, technical troubles, and divisive combat involving you and other exosuited Iron Man-y friends saving a lush alien planet.

Whatever crowd the game attracted on release day didn't last too long, prompting the studio to go back to the drawing board with a massive update, re-release thingy tentatively called Anthem Next, which publisher EA eventually shot down so BioWare could make safer hits with sequels to Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

So, yes. Anthem is in the rear view mirror for the studio that's continuing to work on the same two series it created two console generations ago. But that doesn't mean Anthem's been completely forgotten, either.

Ben Irving, who worked as the co-op shooter's lead producer and has since left to join Tomb Raider stewards Crystal Dynamics, recently tweeted that he'd "love to reboot Anthem one day" in response to an online fan who was still blasting alien mechs in the game. "It's amazing how many people are still so enthusiastic about Anthem so many years later," he later said. "Anthem still has all the potential in the world..."

In the meantime, see our upcoming games of 2024 and beyond list to find out what’s on the horizon.