Anthem's Early Access Launch is Plagued with Connection Issues

Published Sat, 16 Feb 2019 19:40:11 -0600

BioWare's Anthem has only launched for EA Access and Origin Access subscribers, however, the game's early launch has been plagued with connection issues. The issues were later patched and servers have appeared to be more stable, but the early access problems in live service games are never a great sign. After all, the game's full launch will hit on February 22nd.

From Polygon:

Early in the morning of Feb. 15, the day the game went live for early access, Anthem started to experience server issues that prevented players from launching any missions. These problems became more common until the servers seemed to go down completely on PC, greeting players with a splash screen saying that the "Anthem service is currently unavailable."

According to EA Help, EA's customer service Twitter account, the company is aware of the connection issues and is encouraging players to keep trying. This isn't the first time that Anthem has experienced connection issues. During the VIP Demo, which launched on Jan. 25, players ran into many of these same issues, including the Connection Problem screen when first logging into the game. Those early problems remained persistent throughout the game's first day, but were mostly cleared up by day two.

Connection issues in early access for live games isn't new. Most games that require an online connection have trouble their first few days, especially when there's an "early access" launch. Typically that means the game's full servers aren't online, and the early access servers get overloaded by playercount or DDoS issues.

However, there is a lot of pressure riding on Anthem to do well considering BioWare's last game was an utter flop. With the game having no dedicated PvP content at launch and server drops in early access, things aren't looking so hot. Which just adds more pressure for the game to do well on February 22nd.

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