Anthem turned one year old February 22, but you wouldn’t have known that from the game’s official presence on social media. Neither developer BioWare nor publisher EA marked the troubled game’s first birthday in any public way.
A few of Anthem’s key staff posted birthday wishes. “Happy Birthday Anthem!” game director Jonathan Warner tweeted. “What a journey this has been. My life has been forever changed this past year and I Want to thank all who have played and enjoyed the game. To the community that has stuck by us, you are amazing. I have no words. Just love and gratitude.”
But there was a notable silence from the official channels, which normally mark anniversaries and other occasions with promotional events and celebratory posts. Not so for Anthem, and perhaps not surprisingly: the game has had what can generously be called a troubled first year on the market, and BioWare’s Anthem team has been fairly radio silent since it announced the end of seasonal updates and a “substantial reinvention” of core gameplay.
There are still Anthem players, however, and some of them took time Saturday to mark the game’s first birthday. Redditor Faidren posted a compilation video of exciting moments of Anthem gameplay:
u/Polymorphicspector posted photos of a set of hand-crafted stained glass javelin icons. And u/Velocity_Prime shared thoughts about the game’s first year.
“This game has a lot of major issues but at the game’s core, there’s an insanely beautiful game with fun mechanics and naturally fun,” Velocity_Prime wrote. “Thank you guys for this amazing experience and I hope nothing but the best for the game’s future.”
It’s unclear what exactly EA and BioWare have planned for Anthem. News of a complete overhaul leaked in November, and BioWare says it is going back to the drawing boards to rework some core systems and concepts. Perhaps on Anthem’s second birthday, we’ll have more to celebrate.