Anthem Slides Into the EA Access Vault Less Than a Year Post-Launch

BioWare's futuristic loot-shooter was rocky even before it launched. Today, with less than a year since its release, Anthem is joining the Origin Access and EA Access vault, making the standard edition free to play for subscribers of either service.

Starting today, you can download Anthem for free as part of the EA or Origin Access subscription service. The service extends across PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for EA Access, while Origin Access will grant you entry to the PC build. Timing it up for today means you can jump in and start playing Anthem right before Cataclysm, Anthem's first major content update since launch, comes to a close.

BioWare and EA are likely hopeful this might spur otherwise disinterested Access subscribers to give Anthem a shot. But the multiplayer flying-suit shooter hasn't had the easiest time of it this year; from bugs that made damage meaningless to recent high-level departures, times have been tough for BioWare. Even Cataclysm, the major update that some fans were hoping would right the ship, hasn't garnered much enthusiasm.

It seems like Anthem is stuck repeating history. But with the Access vault open, there might be some players willing to hop and play it, giving it the player bump it needs to weather on through to another year and another shot. Higher-ups at Electronic Arts seem convinced that Anthem can flourish at some point. Hopefully an influx of vault players can help.