Anthem Revived: Now Playable on a Private Server

While former BioWare producer Mark Darrah has suggested that EA could still find a way to revive Anthem without breaking the bank, it appears more likely that BioWare and its parent company will let the game fade into obscurity. Nevertheless, some dedicated fans are exploring ways to keep the game alive even after the servers go dark, with one individual successfully running it on a P2P server.

YouTuber And799 has shared a video showcasing the game operating on local servers. Although certain online features, like accessing your profile, were unavailable, And799 managed to get the game functioning with two players in the same matchmaking environment. The video description notes that this is purely for “research” and an “experiment,” and should not be seen as a sign of any potential Anthem revival. Still, it’s thrilling to see that a playable version of the game remains feasible, even if it’s not under the guidance of EA and BioWare.

Given that this was accomplished just days after Anthem’s shutdown on January 12, there’s hope that fan initiatives to preserve the game will yield positive results in the months ahead. Even if you weren’t a fan of Anthem or believe BioWare shouldn’t have developed it, it feels unjust for a game to vanish completely after players invested money and countless developers dedicated years to its creation. While fans may work to restore the game’s unfinished campaign, it remains uncertain how much of the online experience they can successfully recreate.

Anthem’s closure follows a significant downsizing at BioWare about a year after the launch of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, with the remaining developers now focused on the next Mass Effect. The studio teased the upcoming game on N7 Day last year, but remained silent during Dragon Age’s fan day in December.