Anthem’s console-bricking plague a worrying sign of the times

You have to feel sorry for Bioware. The storied development house just can’t get a break lately.

Not only was Mass Effect: Andromeda so disappointing many thought it could kill the franchise, but their latest game, Anthem, is drawing headlines for all of the wrong reasons. Often compared to Fallout 76 in terms of quality and bugs, Anthem can’t be that bad can it?

Sure, Bioware tried some different things out with this game but that’s to be expected, right?

You have to give Bioware credit for trying something new, even if it alienates some of their longtime fans. After all, who would want to work for EA anyway? Clearly Electronic Arts is stifling this once stalwart development studio.

Bioware undeserving of sympathy?

Or maybe you could dry your tears and save them for someone who deserves them because, in the vein of Bethesda’s latest tragedy, Bioware’s Anthem doesn’t look like it deserves your tears.

In fact, it might deserve your scorn depending on how you react to the latest problem the game has unleashed on people.

Typically, we shy away from giving too much credit where none is due. The internet can complain about anything. But this is real, and we think it’s just a larger part of an awful trend that needs to stop. It seems that devs have forgotten that crappy, broken games will kill a console and an industry. Just look up what happened with Atari in the US in 1983 for further reference.

Apparently, there are widespread reports of a bug in Anthem that is causing consoles to shut down entirely.

PS4 and Xbox One both affected by bug

Boo hoo, right? Wrong – if you own a modern console, you know how frustrating this can be. They’re basically computers now and a cold shut-off can do serious damage. The PS4 makes everyone who ever does this to the system go through some disk-checking ritualistic prayer before you can start playing again. Microsoft doesn’t do this on the Xbox but it has a similar thing going on in the background.

Beyond that, Anthem isn’t just causing some consoles to shut off power entirely, but it is bricking them as well. The problem seems to be more widespread among PS4 owners than Xbox One players but both sides of the aisle are reporting this problem.

Imagine playing a game so garbage it destroys your video game system? We’re sure that’ll get you to buy the dev’s next project.

Concerned triple-A trend

Really, though, this is just another sign of the times and shows the kinds of risks developers and publishers take by pushing something out. Most of the critical evaluations of Anthem devolve into “great game but seems unfinished,” which, honestly, is probably better than most of Fallout 76’s “What is this?” reviews.

But when you release a game so unfinished it bricks consoles you might want to reevaluate what you are doing. Now, before we put on the rose-coloured glasses and take a shot while talking about how it was better way back when just remember that it wasn’t but most games were thoroughly tested so that there weren’t cartridges with game breaking bugs present.

Bring back that tradition. Until then, save your tears for Bioware and say a prayer for triple-A games in general if this is the kind of thing we can expect more of in the future.