Bloody Hell, Anthem Could've Lived On! A Former Dev's Wild Plan for a Solo Revival
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
Former *Anthem* executive producer Mark Darrah has revealed that player-hostable local server tech existed and, combined with a $10m budget, could turn the game into a narrative-rich, single-player BioWare adventure, although he reckons EA's unlikely to cast that particular spell on the now-defunct title.
Right, so you know that gut-wrenching feeling when a game you had *some* hopes for (or, let's be fair, even just a passing curiosity about) gets unceremoniously unplugged? Like someone just yanked the life support on your digital pet, leaving it to drift into the ether. That's what happened with BioWare's *Anthem* this week, as EA finally pulled the plug on its online servers, effectively making the game unplayable. Poof. Gone. Vanished like a rogue spellcasting attempt.
But what if I told you there was a glimmer – no, a full-on, shimmering portal – that could have saved it? And not just saved it, but transformed it into something potentially magnificent? That's the wild, fascinating, and frankly, a bit heartbreaking tale that's been bubbling up, thanks to a former *Anthem* executive producer, Mark Darrah. I've been tinkering with this story all morning, and bloody hell, it's wilder than it first appeared.
This fascinating insight comes from an article by Robert Purchese for Eurogamer, originally published on January 13, 2026. You can find the full piece here
Darrah, who packed up his gear and left BioWare back in December 2020, dropped this bombshell at the end of a marathon three-and-a-half-hour YouTube video dissecting "The Truth About What Happened on Anthem." And the core revelation? *Anthem* actually had functional code for local servers – that's right, tech that would let *us*, the players, host our own games without EA's central infrastructure – running in a development environment right up until a few months before launch. "I don't know that they still work but the code is there to be salvaged and recovered," he stated.
Now, let that sink in for a moment. A live-service game, notorious for its reliance on publisher-maintained servers, had the *option* for players to keep it alive independently. This isn't just a technical footnote; it's a colossal 'what if.' Think about the countless games that have faded into obscurity because a publisher decided server costs outweighed dwindling player numbers. Local servers are a godsend for game preservation, a way for communities to keep cherished (or even just interesting) titles breathing long after corporate interest wanes. Why it wasn't deployed, well, that's a rabbit hole we could fall down for days, isn't it?
But Darrah didn't stop at merely revealing forgotten code. Oh no, he went for an even bolder, almost audacious plan: resurrecting *Anthem* as a fully single-player experience. Mate, this is where my eyebrows shot up faster than a Javelin taking off. He reckons, with a budget of about $10 million – which, in the grand scheme of AAA development, is a surprisingly modest sum – you could effectively rebuild *Anthem* from the ground up as a BioWare game through and through.
His blueprint is wonderfully pragmatic, yet deliciously ambitious. Step one: a quick-fire update. Get the game running on current-gen consoles, crank up those PC effects, and lock it to a silky-smooth 60 frames-per-second. Fair dinkum, that's just good housekeeping. Step two: integrate those local servers. Boom. No more reliance on EA's dime for hosting, giving the game true independence.
And then, the magic happens. Step three: "Pivot to something that's more about single-player storytelling." Instead of relying on random players to fill out your squad, you'd bring in AI companions, just like in BioWare's storied past. And because it's BioWare, he insists, you'd "go all the way into making them companions." We're talking unique characters, new dialogue, bespoke plot arcs that weave through the existing *Anthem* story. You could promote some existing NPCs, sure, but Darrah believes crafting three to five brand-new characters would be the lower-friction, higher-impact route. Giving them personality, agency, and their own stories – that's the BioWare special sauce.
Imagine that! A game that was initially designed to be a frantic looter-shooter transformed into a narrative-rich, companion-focused adventure. Darrah paints a picture of a game much more familiar to traditional BioWare fans, many of whom likely steered clear of *Anthem* precisely because it leaned so heavily into the live-service, multiplayer grind. "What you've essentially re-engineered is a BioWare game," he says, "without romances, with a decent BioWare story, with companions, that can be played as a single-player game." While it might not fetch a full $70 price tag, it would, by his estimation, be a brand new single-player title created with a relatively modest amount of effort.
Now, before we all start drafting petitions and sending strongly worded emails to EA, Darrah himself pours a bit of cold water on the idea: "Is EA going to do this? Almost definitely not." And that, mates, is where the gentle skepticism kicks in. We're talking about a company that prioritizes bottom lines and quarterly reports. Salvaging a past failure, even one with a viable path to redemption, often doesn't fit the corporate playbook.
Darrah's video delves deep into *Anthem*'s tumultuous development, highlighting a project that famously lacked a single unifying vision from its inception, a common lament in the world of ambitious but troubled AAA titles. It's a sobering look at how grand visions can crumble under the weight of shifting priorities and an unclear identity.
So, what does this tell us? Firstly, the inherent value of player-hostable servers for game preservation cannot be overstated. Secondly, that sometimes the most exciting innovations – or in this case, salvations – come from looking backward and applying classic game design principles to existing frameworks. *Anthem* might be gone, but the ghost of what it *could* have been, a single-player BioWare epic, still hovers. And honestly, isn't that a far more interesting story than just another server shutdown?
Tags: Anthem, BioWare, Game Preservation, Live Service, Single-Player
Original article: Eurogamer