Overview

• Mark Darrah published the first part of a multi-installment YouTube series on August 6, 2025, detailing Anthem’s troubled development.
• He reveals that Casey Hudson’s initial pitch framed Anthem as a story-driven live-service game capable of achieving ‘FIFA numbers’ in revenue.
• Hudson’s departure around 2014 left the project without clear creative leadership, triggering iterative churn in core gameplay systems.
• Anthem’s development was hampered by internal competition for talent and resources from concurrent BioWare projects like Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda.
• Electronic Arts has confirmed that all Anthem servers will shut down in January 2026, rendering the game unplayable after years of low player engagement.