Originally published on March 16, 2019.

With the troubled release of “Mass Effect: Andromeda,” Bioware’s latest IP “Anthem” has some big shoes to fill, so to speak. This is doubly true given its parent company, EA, is notorious for giving underperforming studios the proverbial axe. However, it seems “Anthem” has run into its own set of obstacles, one after another.

For some context “Anthem” is a “looter shooter” type video game, similar to “Destiny” and “The Division,” released by Bungie and Ubisoft, respectively.

Released to mixed reviews, citing glitches, an uninteresting world and story, and a general unpolished feel, “Anthem” went from having a good deal of hype surrounding it, to general disinterest. Especially when EA bans players for exploiting glitches, while Bungie and Ubisoft patched out similar exploits, while leaving nary a player banned.

As if things could not go any more southward for Bioware, the most recent glitch to strike “Anthem” was a one that caused hard crashes of both PS4 and Xbox One consoles. Some players claimed that this glitch caused their consoles to be “bricked” or rendered useless.

However, Chad Robertson, the head of the live service claims the contrary. In a tweet, he states that “After thorough review, we have not encountered an instance where Anthem has “bricked” a PS4 Console.”

Despite this, Sony has offered refunds for the game, due to such fears. Since this issue occurred, Bioware has since put out a patch for the game on March ninth which addresses the crashing bug, as well as some balancing issues. But this patch has received a negative response from the fanbase.

While it does apparently fix the hard crashes, other glitches still persist, such as sound drops, and bugged missions. Other players claim “legendary” item drop rate has decreased significantly. Overall, “Anthem” remains one of the more controversial game releases in recent memory, and that’s saying something in a world where “Fallout 76” exists.