BioWare’s latest has had a rocky launch, as optimisation problems, glitches, and server issues have kept players from enjoying the game to its fullest – and even the full experience has its limitations, as noted in our Anthem PC review. But the problems seem much worse on consoles, as the PlayStation 4 version is crashing so hard it’s shutting the entire system down.
The game’s been affected by crashes since its launch via EA’s subscription services a little over two weeks ago, though it didn’t reach PS4 until the official release date on February 22. Reports of system-level crashes on Sony’s platform have intensified over the weekend, with plenty of people hitting up social media to vent their frustration.
Reddit user TheMadTitanGauntlet says “My playstation has been completely bricked to the point of not even turning on because of Anthem,” as noted by Kotaku. The site also received “tips from players affected by the issue, including at least one who says that Anthem bricked their PS4 as well.” Some players have reported success in receiving refunds for that version of the game, despite Sony’s typically restrictive refund policy.
If you’ve been a PS4 owner for any length of time – alongside your gaming PC, of course – you know that the system really doesn’t like to be shut down improperly. On the next boot, it’ll give you a loud series of beeps, run a full hard drive scan, and warn you to shut down properly next time. That typically happens because of a hard power cycle or an electricity outage, but it looks like the Anthem crashes are doing the same thing.
Anecdotally, I took a rental of the game for a spin on Xbox One, and ran into multiple hard crashes, mostly coming into and out of loading screens. Some were game freezes, and others sent me straight back to the console dashboard.
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There are significant issues on PC as well, including failure for the process to properly terminate, memory leaks, and good old-fashioned crashes, but I’ve yet to see anyone say the game’s bricked their home computer. (And while the PC crashes seem more prolific in Anthem than they should be, it’s worth noting that some number of those reports will come from players with bad hardware and driver configurations.)