Stop Killing Games says Anthem's scrapped plans for local servers is what the initiative is all about: "You as the customer should have the final say as to when you're done with a game"

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Stop Killing Games says Anthem's scrapped plans for local servers is what the initiative is all about: "You as the customer should have the final say as to when you're done with a game" News By Dustin Bailey published 14 January 2026

"If you put money into the game, you should have a voice on whether you get to keep it or not"

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Anthem, BioWare's maligned loot shooter, is officially dead. This week's server shutdown rendered the always-online game completely unplayable even to those who already own it – a practice the Stop Killing Games initiative has been fighting for close to two years now. According to producer Mark Darrah, the seeds of the future Stop Killing Games envisions were in Anthem until shortly before launch.

In October 2025, Darrah published a post-mortem video running down Anthem's post-launch fortunes. Near the end, he describes his vision for Anthem Next – an ultimately abandoned plan he believed could've given the game a No Man's Sky-style turnaround. Crucially, this plan would've included locally hosted servers – something that already partially existed during development

"Anthem actually had the code for local servers running in a dev environment right up until a few months before launch," Darrah explains. "I don't know that they still work, but the code is there to be salvaged and recovered. The reason you do this, it pulls away the costs of maintaining this game. So rather than having dedicated servers that are required for the game to run, you let the server run on one of the machines that's playing the game."

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These comments have come back into the news thanks to a nearly four-hour compilation video Darrah posted this week. Responding to those headlines, the Stop Killing Games account on Twitter says that end of life plans "for games like this is what SKG is about."

While Anthem is a pretty widely maligned title, Stop Killing Games says in a follow-up tweet that "it really is as simple as the principle of one man's trash is another man's treasure. If you put money into the game, you should have a voice on whether you get to keep it or not. You as the customer should have the final say as to when you're done with a game, not the company."

"Stop Killing Games has actually changed the timeline": As EU petition comes to successful close, founder says "unending overtime" has him ready to "take a break for the next 10 years," but he's sticking around until it's done'

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Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. TOPICS Bioware EA CATEGORIES PS5 PS4 Xbox Series X Xbox One PC Gaming Platforms PlayStation Xbox Dustin BaileySocial Links NavigationStaff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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Logout Read more A week before BioWare's worst game meets its final end, Anthem players gather to mourn what might have been    Anthem fans say goodbye to BioWare's looter shooter on its server shutdown day, mourning the "potential" that was lost    Dragon Age veteran says scrapped Anthem Next "could have been" up there with No Man's Sky's legendary turnaround    Anthem "did permanent damage to the careers of a lot of game devs" says Dragon Age veteran    "I can't even find the motivation to play": 13,000-hour veteran leads the charge as New World players mourn their MMO by absolutely nuking its Steam reviews    Concord fans bring Sony's infamous hero shooter flop back a year after it went offline, only for the PlayStation maker to smite the project down within days    Latest in Action RPGs Dragon Age veteran says scrapped Anthem Next "could have been" up there with No Man's Sky's legendary turnaround    Ex-Skyrim artist hopes Elder Scrolls 6 has "some new ideas" that avoid the franchise burnout seen in Assassin's Creed    Stellar Blade lead says South Korea needs AI to compete with US and China, with the government to fund use of the tech    Anthem "did permanent damage to the careers of a lot of game devs" says Dragon Age veteran    A Honkai: Star Rail leaker was sued for over $150,000, but skipped his own court date and somehow ended up owing $16,500    Bloodborne "is a special game for me" says Hidetaka Miyazaki: It's "the strongest reflection of my type of flavoring"    Latest in News Stop Killing Games says Anthem's scrapped plans for local servers is what the initiative is all about    Fallout 4 modder turns Bethesda boss Todd Howard into infamous "immortal snail" that kills you with a single touch    Deadpool finally revealed for Marvel Rivals: the first hero who can play all 3 roles, and also block ults with his ass    Almost 10 years after launch, Capcom's NES Disney compilation could finally come to Switch as ESRB rating emerges    Baldur's Gate 3 director's big Divinity mystery has apparently been solved – this detail sure wasn't an accident    Forza Horizon 6 release date seemingly leaked in Horizon 5, Xbox itself says it's coming this spring    GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS

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