Bioware on Wednesday, February 24, announced it was ceasing further development work on the overhaul of its third-person action roleplaying game Anthem.

In a blog post, Bioware Austin studio director Christian Dailey blamed the pandemic for the cessation of development work.

Dailey explained, “2020 was a year unlike any other however and while we continue to make progress against all our game projects at BioWare, working from home during the pandemic has had an impact on our productivity and not everything we had planned as a studio before COVID-19 can be accomplished without putting undue stress on our teams.”

Anthem released on February 22, 2019 to mixed reviews, with Bioware initially promising to overhaul the game in February 2020 towards a project they called Anthem Next.

“I know this will be disappointing to the community of Anthem players who have been excited to see the improvements we’ve been working on. It’s also disappointing for the team who were doing brilliant work. And for me personally, Anthem is what brought me to BioWare, and the last two years have been some of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my career,” Dailey added.

Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier meanwhile added the developers working on Anthem would be moved towards development of Dragon Age 4.

– Rappler.com