All articles tagged with #anthem
The piece argues that Zac Brown Band’s UFC anthem does not actually embody a patriotic message, countering claims that it was patriotic and examining how listeners interpret the song amid ongoing discussions about national symbolism in sports and entertainment.
Former BioWare/Anthem executive Mark Darrah argues that live-service games could be funded through product placement, citing the live‑action Smurfs film as an example that allegedly paid for itself this way. He suggests this model could protect player experience and curb over‑reliance on monetisation, while acknowledging broader debates about end‑of‑life plans for online games.
Global pop stars LISA, Rema, and Anitta join forces for FIFA World Cup 2026 with the collaboration 'Goals', a cross‑continental anthem set to energize fans ahead of the tournament.
During Game 5 against the Boston Bruins, a mic issue during 'O Canada' prompted the Sabres’ 19,070 hometown crowd to sing along—turning a brief technical hiccup into a powerful, cross-border display of unity and team spirit in Buffalo.
In Game 5 of the Sabres–Bruins series, a mic glitch during 'O Canada' led Buffalo fans to belt out the anthem themselves, creating a heartwarming moment before the Sabres fell 2-1 in overtime but still lead the series 3-2 as they chase a return to the postseason’s success after a long drought.
Buffalo fans at KeyBank Center belted out lyrics to O Canada when the anthem singer's mic failed before Game 5 of the Sabres–Bruins series; a new mic later let the singer finish with The Star-Spangled Banner. The Sabres, near the Canadian border, regularly include O Canada at home games and led 3-1 in the series.
Iran’s women’s football team sang their national anthem before their final Women’s Asian Cup match in Australia after previously remaining silent amid safety fears tied to the war; they were eliminated from the tournament with a 2-0 loss to the Philippines, and a Change.org petition urged Australia to offer refuge to the players amid concerns for their families, as officials and human-rights advocates highlighted the broader context of Iran’s crackdown on dissent.
Iran’s women’s team arrived in Australia before air strikes, amid reports of civilian casualties; after a 4-0 loss to Australia, they must beat the Philippines to reach the knockout stage. They sang the national anthem this time, mirroring the men’s 2022 World Cup approach, as domestic protests continue and Iranian‑Australian fans waved flags outside the Gold Coast stadium.
Two Greenlandic musicians turned a spontaneous melody into 'Greenland Belongs to Greenlanders,' a protest anthem crafted with Siiva Fleischer that has become the soundtrack for Nuuk demonstrations against President Trump’s push to annex Greenland. Released Jan. 11, the song taps Greenlandic history of anti-colonial music and is fueling unity and resistance as the movement for greater autonomy grows.
A fan has reportedly gotten Anthem running on a private peer-to-peer server days after its official shutdown, with YouTuber And799 showing two players in a shared matchmaking space; online features like viewing profiles are limited and BioWare/EA have not revived the game. The setup is described as a research experiment, not a revival, highlighting fan efforts to preserve the title and potentially salvage playable content in the future.
BioWare veteran Mark Darrah defends Anthem’s development, arguing BioWare has always evolved beyond its RPG roots and that the game’s mixed reception isn’t entirely EA’s fault; Anthem, launched in 2019 to mixed reviews, is set to go offline in January 2026 as part of ongoing studio changes.
Former Dragon Age producer Mark Darrah floated reviving Anthem as a single-player BioWare RPG with a conservative $10 million budget, proposing updated current-gen visuals at 60fps, locally hosted servers to cut online costs, and AI-controlled companions to drive a story-driven experience. The plan would shift away from the original four-player loot shooter, aiming for a BioWare-style narrative rather than a live-service reboot, but it remains speculative and unlikely to meet full AAA pricing or fan demand; EA has not announced any revival and Anthem Next has been canceled. The discussion also touches on game preservation and whether publishers should keep games playable beyond their servers’ lifespans.
Mark Darrah’s postmortem argues Anthem could be revived as a single-player game if EA funded a roughly $10 million rework with local servers, porting to current-gen consoles, and AI companions; a break-even target of about 400,000 copies is possible, but he doubts EA would pursue it, leaving Anthem’s online-only fate largely sealed.
Former BioWare executive Mark Darrah reveals Anthem actually had local-server code near launch that could be salvaged to host home servers. His plan would re-release Anthem as a standalone, current-gen BioWare title focused on single-player storytelling with AI companions, moving away from online servers, and would require roughly $10 million to update and rewrite. While it would re-engineer Anthem into a BioWare game, Darrah cautions EA is unlikely to pursue it.
Anthem, BioWare's ambitious live-service shooter, shut down its servers after seven years with no offline option. Despite early promise and a hoped-for 2.0 reboot, the game struggled with repetitive missions, uneven writing, and monetization concerns, leading EA to end support. Fans remember the era and document its final hours, turning Anthem into a cautionary tale for live-service projects while preserving memories of what could have been.