Anthem’s rough launch has seen PlayStation 4 (PS4) users flock to various forums to complain that the game was inexplicably crashing their system and in some cases causing a power cycling issue. While these woes are set to come to an end next week, thanks to BioWare finding a fix, Xbox One users also claim to have been affected by the bug.
BioWare’s head of live service Chad Robertson took to social media to share that the developer had found “several causes” for the temporary power down crashes on PS4. “Fixes for the top issues are in patch next week. If you encounter a game crash where your PS4 console won’t respond, you can manually power down and restart it – no risk of damage.”
Fortunately, with the solution that Robertson provided, there has been no evidence of a permanently bricked console, although he encourages affected users to get in touch with EA Help if they’ve experienced anything different.
After thorough review, we have not encountered an instance where Anthem has “bricked” a PS4 console. If you are experiencing anything different, please reach out to @EAHelp so we can track the incident and investigate. Thanks for your patience.
— Chad Robertson (@crobertson_atx) March 6, 2019
According to crash reports, Anthem’s forced shutdowns are significantly more common on PlayStation 4, but that hasn’t put Xbox One users in the clear. Forbes' Paul Tassi explained that he had experienced similar issues on his Xbox One X, seemingly displaying total power failure during a mission. In true journalistic fashion, Tassi also managed to corroborate his story with other Xbox owners.
PlayStation 4 users should be in the clear when the patch drops on March 12, although it remains unconfirmed whether or not this will solve the same problem on the few Xbox One consoles affected.
KitGuru Says: Although both EA and BioWare should be held to a higher standard upon release, the developer has certainly cracked the formula for fun aerial combat. Hopefully console players can soon enjoy this without a diminished experience.