Anthem, the latest release from BioWare, hasn’t experienced the smoothest launch, with a variety of bugs reported to date. Not something you’d expect from a fully launched game.
Anthem was one of the most hyped-up games for this year, and now it seems like the game wasn’t actually complete at launch. Many users have reported bugs that shut down PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. The developers released a day one patch (1.03) which seemed to fix some issues, but PS4 owners are now reportedly losing their consoles due to the fault. Ouch.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Many players have taken to forums on both EA’s website and Reddit to rant about their experience with Anthem. Most of those with problems report the system completely shutting down during matchmaking, or if players don’t exit the game through the main menu. On two occasions, it seems that PS4 consoles have been bricked by the bug. If the issue becomes more widespread, it could lead to others opting not to play anymore. In addition to folks getting mad about toasted hardware, of course.
“PSA to any Anthem players on Playstation that experience complete shut downs of their consoles: STOP PLAYING!” Reddit user, TheMadTitanGauntled warns other players. “My playstation [sic] has been completely bricked to the point of not even turning on because of Anthem… I’ve been talking on the phone with Playstation support for a little over 2 hours now, but unfortunately there’s nothing they can do (or nothing they’re willing to do).”
Just get a refund
Luckily, EA has tweeted that they’re aware of the issue and working on it. We don’t know to what extent they’ll implement a fix, though. We’ve played games in pre-beta that didn’t crash systems, so this doesn’t look that good for the EA/BioWare developers.
We’re aware of a crashing issue some of you have been reporting for #AnthemGame. We’re investigating and ask that you share your crash data reports when prompted. If you have, we’ll be reaching out to gather info; if not, please reply to this thread on AHQ:https://t.co/36P21YFjYL
— EA Help (@EAHelp) March 4, 2019
But once a fix is implemented, it might be too late, because many players are urging others to drop the game completely. Sony has already started giving out refunds to people experiencing issues. Sales will likely decline from this point on, until the developers roll out a real fix for the current problems.