20 Disappointing Video Games That Didn't Fulfil Their Potential

7. Anthem

Anthem Game
BioWare

Anthem was BioWare’s attempt at making a live service game, following the success of Bungie’s Destiny. If you were to think of the BioWare team just 5 years prior to this release, you probably wouldn’t have any worries about Anthem. You’d be looking at a team that has brought out classic after classic, such as the Mass Effect Trilogy, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Dragon Age. But there was a game that was released between Dragon Age: Inquisition and Anthem, called Mass Effect: Andromeda. 

Andromeda saw BioWare go through huge sweeping changes, key talent left, and the shiny gold standard the people came to expect from BioWare had vanished completely. So people came into Anthem extremely cautious, and unfortunately, their cautions were all warranted. 

Lacking any of the staple features that gamers came to expect from BioWare, they were met with a lacklustre story, a mediocre world and little content. Anthem wasn’t the buggy mess that most other entries have been on this list, but it suffered from a lack of stuff to actually do. The gameplay was actually pretty fun, and flying around is the closest thing we’ve come to a genuinely good Iron Man experience, but that’s about it. 

See, the key difference between Anthem and Destiny is that Destiny, even to this day, is continuously updated with new content, new story and places to visit. Anthem wasn’t so lucky. A year after the game came out, EA and BioWare announced that work had begun on reevaluating the game and rebooting the thing entirely, similar to what Square Enix accomplished with Final Fantasy XIV. 

Then, in February 2021, BioWare announced that it was going to cease any future work on Anthem. No future updates, no more content, nothing. And in more recent updates, EA announced that servers for Anthem will be shut down on the 12th of January, 2026. We never got to see what BioWare fully had planned for Anthem, and it’s a heartache.

 
Posted On: 
Contributor

Hey, I’m Matt. I work full-time at WhatCulture's neighbours, MyVoucherCodes. I first joined MyVoucherCodes as a Deals Expert, scouring the internet, leaving no stone unturned in finding the best discount codes, sales and offers for our customers. Moving into my first home during the worst possible time (during lockdown), I understand the necessity of saving money when the purse strings are tight. Outside of saving money, I’m into video games, movies, books and music. I host and edit a video game podcast called The Retry Hard Podcast, where my friend and I go through news, reviews and video games in general. I love movies and watching how they’re made, and I’ve worked as a set decorator for a few months on His Dark Materials season 3, which gave me a massive insight into how it all comes together. I also put out music as a solo artist named Matt Kiano, where I won the award for Best Male Artist of 2025 for Radio Wigwam and have been nomiated for Best Live Act at the 2026 Radio Wigwam Awards.