6 days ago
1
Can't ground these Javelins.
EA and BioWare's failed action-RPG shooter Anthem was put down on 12th January. No offline or P2P alternative for this one, at least officially. It was gone for good, with both the publisher and the studio seemingly eager to move on. However, fans aren't ready to let go.
Even though plans for a community-led revival project were already underway a couple of months ago under the name Cenotaph, it was the video posted on 17th January by user And799 on YouTube (hat tip to Kotaku) that ignited real hopes of getting the back online:
This person was quick to underline this is just a personal research experiment, and if you look at their YouTube channel, it's clear they enjoy the process of looking through files and systems, mostly of EA-published games. Still, you can see for yourself Anthem doing mostly fine while running on private servers. Moreover, two players are shown in the same lobby. What doesn't work is the whole layer of the player's online profile and other stuff probably centralized on EA's now-missing servers.
Right after Anthem's death, ex-BioWare executive producer Mark Darrah pointed out during his massive video on the game's inception, life, and death that code for local servers actually existed and could be "salvaged and recovered." In fact, he suggested a $10m plan to reboot the game as a single-player-first experience if EA decided to part ways with the IP. That's a lot of wishful thinking, but it's definitely something the game's fans would celebrate. Looking at private experiments like And799's showing a lot of promise already, we're betting on fans figuring this one out eventually at the very least.
For now, other industry figures are chiming in on multiplayer game preservation as more and more online-only games are shut down. Up next on the chopping block is Amazon's troubled MMORPG New World, which was recently delisted and will shut down on 31st January next year.
English (US) ·