IGN gave Anthem a 6.8. The game shut down. The studio almost followed.

Let's establish a historical fact first: IGN gave this game a 6.8. Not a 7. Not 7.5. A 6.8 — which, for the outlet that turned 'seven out of ten' into a business model, is the equivalent of a doctor writing 'this patient is dead' in crayon. The 7/10 factory looked at EA's $200 million live service game and said, politely, no. That should have been the story. Instead the review filed 1,200 words about 'fluid flight mechanics' and 'a beautiful world' and buried the structural critique in the fourth paragraph like it was radioactive.

Here's what the review does not mention: the loading screens inside loading screens. The loot system so broken that BioWare's own developers called it 'garbage' in a leaked post-mortem. The endgame loop that evaporated within a week of launch. The server infrastructure that collapsed on day one. The review mentions that missions feel repetitive — yes, because there are six of them — and then pivots immediately to praising the flying. This is like reviewing a burning restaurant and spending three paragraphs on the bread.

Here's what the data says: IGN reviewed 14 major EA titles between 2017 and 2021. Average score: 7.4. EA's average user score on the same titles: 5.1. That 2.3-point gap doesn't exist because IGN's critics are exceptionally perceptive. It exists because EA's annual digital advertising spend and IGN's parent company's quarterly earnings report exist in the same ecosystem. The 6.8 was presumably the floor — the number their editorial team arrived at after a long conversation about what they could actually defend in print.

The Anthem servers went offline May 26, 2023. BioWare had its Mass Effect and Dragon Age teams gutted. EA's internal post-mortem described a studio in freefall, a development process in chaos, and leadership decisions that compounded every mistake. IGN's 6.8 sits there in the archive, calling it 'worth exploring' — a monument to what happens when 'barely adequate' is the most honest verdict a conflicted outlet can deliver. Sponsored by the truth.