Anthem director, Jonathan Warner, has left BioWare

News by Dom Peppiatt Editor-in-chief

Published on March 28, 2021

Anthem director Jonathan Warner has left Electronic Arts Studio BioWare after nearly a decade at the studio.

Warner has left the studio shortly after it was revealed that EA would not be continuing development on Anthem Next because "not everything [EA] had planned as a studio before COVID-19 can be accomplished without putting undue stress on [its] teams."

"So, today is my last day at BioWare, I’m moving on to do new things," Warner tweeted. "BioWare has been home to my grateful heart for nearly 10 years and I want to wish them all the best. [Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Star Wars: The Old Republic] are in good hands and I can’t wait to play from this side of the screen."

Warner, listed as Chief of Staff at BioWare and is credited as game director of Anthem, joined the studio in 2012 in order to steer development on the live service side of things in the game. Before this (as per his LinkedIn), Warner was a producer at The Walt Disney Company and a test lead over at Microsoft Games Studio.

Anthem had an unsteady beginning after launching in 2019, and faced a wave of criticism about unsatisfactory missions, repetitive endgame content, and a lack of a decent loot pool.

In 2020, BioWare announced it was “substantially reinventing” Anthem. The game fell silent for a long time, and eventually, the team showed some updates on its progress here there such as a re-designed UI, improved loot, and more.

The game will be supported going forward, but Anthem Next is never going to release.