Anthem, which over the years became known as BioWare’s biggest video game failure, is set to shut down on January 12, 2026, after about seven years from the original 2019 launch. With the game going away for good, many players have been eager to play one last time, giving it a personal sendoff. However, many of them have found they are unable to even do this – adding one last bout of disappointment adds to the big dark cloud that notoriously lingered over the Anthem IP all of this time.
Gamers Try to Play Anthem One Last Time, Discover They Are Unable to Reinstall the Game
With Anthem shutting down for good, many players who have previously spent time in the game have had the thought of returning one last time. By playing one last time before a game shuts down, it can be a personal sendoff for gamers before never being able to experience those worlds or characters again. However, it seems players who are interested in doing so for Anthem may not even be able to, as the game won’t reinstall.
This exact situation involves players who clearly own the game (as shared in screenshots), even the Legion of Dawn edition, on their EA app. However, upon attempting to re-download the title on this same platform, they received a pop-up message telling them that the download had failed because they do not own this item.
Anthem is shutting down for good in a week, so I thought I’d play one more time.
The EA App won’t even let me download it even though I own it. pic.twitter.com/spVNJd9six— DansGaming (@Dansgaming) January 5, 2026
The one workaround for this that may still give players a chance is if they own a physical game copy. Some users have been reporting that reinstalling Anthem from the disc works and has allowed them to play in the meantime.
Why Did Anthem Fail to begin with?
While some players have praised the flying mechanics for how fun they can be, this is about as far as positive feedback goes. After rocky development and an even rockier launch, the shutdown of Anthem is no surprise to anyone. In fact, it’s more of a surprise that the game has managed to last this long, with some having already presumed it to have died, or having completely forgotten about it at all.
While it certainly had potential through some fun mechanics, Anthem was ultimately a blender of everything that could have possibly gone wrong in game dev, resulting in a complete flop of a title. In just one more day, Anthem will officially be buried and noted as one of the first games to meet their end in 2026.
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