Some Anthem Players Say EA Is Already Blocking Them From Playing The Game A Week Before It Shuts Down

We’re just one week away from Electronic Arts shutting down Anthem, BioWare’s questionable 2019 looter shooter detour that failed to take off and never got the second chance the RPG studio had promised. According to the initial announcement, fans who bought the game would still be able to play it up until it finally goes offline forever on January 12. However, as the end date gets closer, some players who are trying to go take their Javelins out for one last spin have discovered they’re no longer able to open the game.

We first took notice of this after seeing a few posts on X from users with screenshots showing that they were no longer able to download Anthem after previously purchasing it at some point over the past seven years. The EA app instead told them they “don’t own” the game. I asked around and a friend who had the game through the EA Play subscription tried to download it to his PC and was told “this game is no longer offered in our catalog.”

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

As others have also reported, EA won't let me download Anthem, even though it shuts down a week from now… No "last hurrah" I guess. Crazy that I bought the game and can't even download it while it's still, allegedly, alive… pic.twitter.com/cRu0s4DU1N

— Luke Stephens (@LukeStephens) January 5, 2026

However, this doesn’t seem to be a universal issue, as Kotaku’s Ethan Gach was able to download without issue from the EA Play app. 

Whatever the case may be, it seems like at least some Anthem players who may have wanted to give the game one last try before BioWare and EA needlessly send it tumbling down into a digital void aren’t able to now. The mech shooter hasn’t  been available for purchase since the original shutdown announcement back in July, but if you had a copy of it in your library or on a disc, you were supposed to have one more week to play it.

We’ve reached out to EA and BioWare for comment on the situation, and will update this story if we hear back. This whole thing could’ve been avoided if BioWare had made Anthem accessible offline, but the studio claims it “was designed to be an online-only title.” That’s in contrast to other failed live-service gambits like Redfall and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, both of which received offline modes before being sent off to pasture.