Anthem’s Abandoned Local Server Plans Highlight the Need for Player Control: “You Should Decide When You’re Done with a Game”

Anthem, the controversial loot shooter from BioWare, has officially met its end. With this week’s server shutdown, the game is now completely unplayable for everyone, even those who purchased it. This situation aligns with the ongoing efforts of the Stop Killing Games initiative, which has been advocating against such practices for nearly two years. Producer Mark Darrah noted that the vision for the future that Stop Killing Games aims for was present in Anthem until just before its launch.

In October 2025, Darrah shared a post-mortem video detailing Anthem’s struggles after its release. Towards the end, he discussed his ambitious plans for Anthem Next—a project that was ultimately scrapped but had the potential for a revival similar to No Man’s Sky. A key aspect of this plan involved implementing locally hosted servers, a feature that was partially developed during the game’s creation.

“Anthem actually had the code for local servers running in a dev environment right up until a few months before launch,” Darrah stated. “I can’t confirm if it still works, but the code is there to be salvaged. The idea behind this is to reduce the costs associated with maintaining the game. Instead of relying on dedicated servers, you could allow the game to run on one of the players’ machines.”

These insights have resurfaced in light of a nearly four-hour compilation video Darrah released recently. In response to the renewed attention, the Stop Killing Games account on Twitter emphasized that end-of-life plans for games like Anthem are central to their mission.

While Anthem has faced significant criticism, Stop Killing Games reiterated in a follow-up tweet that “it really is as simple as the principle of one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. If you invested in the game, you should have a say in whether you get to keep it. The final decision on when a game is done should rest with the players, not the company.”

“Stop Killing Games has actually changed the timeline”: As a successful EU petition wraps up, the founder expressed that the “unending overtime” has him ready to “take a break for the next 10 years,” but he remains committed until the mission is complete.