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EA Knows About Anthem PS4 Crashes, Is Working On A Solution

Anthem's string of bad news just won't stop.

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EA has announced it is aware that Anthem is causing certain issues for PS4 consoles. In an effort to fix the problem, the publisher is asking players to submit data reports.

"We are currently in process of gathering information about the PS4 issues so we can determine the root cause," EA wrote in a blog post. If you're playing Anthem on PS4 and the game has seemingly caused your console to crash, EA asks you submit information about which of the PS4 consoles you're using (original, Slim, or Pro), your PSN ID, details about your problem, and whether you reported the crash when your console prompted you to. If you'd rather not, some players--according to Variety--have discovered Sony is offering refunds (pretty much no questions asked) for people who bought Anthem on PS4.

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Anthem has had one of the roughest launches of any game in 2019. A VIP demo held mere weeks before the game's release was bug-ridden and caused problems for other EA games. Anthem then released to mediocre reviews, and even though BioWare pushed out several updates--including one that addressed the unpopular tethering system--the retail price of the game soon started dropping on Amazon. One of the updates--a hotfix patch designed to fix problems with Anthem's loot system--even broke the game for a while.

Despite these setbacks, BioWare appears to remain committed to ensuring Anthem becomes a successful game. BioWare has maintained an active presence on Twitter and Reddit and responds to issues as they appear--although the developer has remained oddly silent in regards to the recent string of PS4 crashes. In order to address Anthem's lack of compelling endgame content, the developer has revealed a 90-day post-launch roadmap for the game, which includes new missions, guilds, and a large-scale event called The Catalyst.

In our Anthem review, Kallie Plagge gave the game a 6/10, writing, "Anthem has good ideas, but it struggles significantly with the execution. It's a co-op game that works best with no one talking; it buries genuinely interesting character moments and puts its most incomprehensible story bits at the forefront; its combat is exciting until you get to the boss fights and find your wings have been clipped. Even the simple, exhilarating act of flying is frequently interrupted by the limitations of your javelin, and you never quite shake that feeling of disappointment--of knowing, throughout the good parts of Anthem, that you'll inevitably come crashing back down."

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Pupchu

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EA: "First, you labelled us the most evil corporation in America. Then, you refused to buy Battlefield V when we told you not to buy now... And now; FINALLY: Vengeance is OURS!!!!"

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itchyflop

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Edited By itchyflop

Ha EA are aware of the situation.

Good for them.

Thanks for the support.

Here's and idea how about a game that isn't broken in the first place, nice to play on your own AND as its best to with others and how about not letting down millions of gamers down in the process who were like me looking forward to this.

For those of you who are enjoying anthem, i whole heartily respect that, we'll see how long for.

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Ansem_Rev

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In other news ....

Xbox One X is running this game BEA-Utifully !!!!

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itchyflop

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@Ansem_Rev: ha shame its a pile of wank in the first place !!!

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skippert

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Edited By skippert

@Ansem_Rev: You are actually playing this game still? Your honeymoon period takes too long. But thanks for supporting dev's and publishers that treat the gaming community like thrash man, keep it up.

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@Ansem_Rev: Nope. There are also reports of hard crashes on PC and Xbox as well. I guess they're just not as widespread.

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Thanatos2k

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Edited By Thanatos2k

@Ansem_Rev: No it isn't. No platform is, because the game is optimized badly.

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator  Online

@Ansem_Rev: Well, it's not getting bricked anyway. I've had my share of troubles playing Anthem on my X.

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@Mogan: It's not getting bricked on the PS4, either. That part is being way overblown based on a single report.

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PHINIX

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@Barighm: Even one report of bricking amid the sea of crashes; would you knowingly play russian roulette even if you knew that there was only one round in the 10000 cylinders?

I'm not saying "don't play it, your console will brick or your game will crash." But I'm wouldn't chance booting up the game and losing all progress on all my other games. That's just me though. I do know some people that are really enjoying it.

PHINIX

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@phinix: Yes, because in this case, it's a guy with his finger in his pocket claiming it's actually a gun. It's the word of one person.

That said, it's still a threat in the form of data corruption. I don't want to have to redownload my games. More importantly, it's a stand against publishers releasing broken shit.

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Ansem_Rev

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Edited By Ansem_Rev

This is the best news

1. People playing online games on a sony platform is just dumb costs as much as live and not even close to being as good ...

2. Bricking consoles

3. People still defend Sony and it’s absolutely terrible software

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Jinzo_111887

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@Ansem_Rev: Paid online in general is dumb.

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deactivated-64c06b51403e7

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@Ansem_Rev: This issue was reported on Xbox consoles as well.

But, sure. It's ridiculous to defend the brand of a console.

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MisterTech

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@Ansem_Rev: yea... totally not on the dev at all.. funny beta was fine. I'd keep bragging about a 60 metacritic game.. gamers everywhere should be ashamed of this regaurdless of platform. Love me some bioware.. but EA is killing them. I wish in could find a legit reason to even turn on my x. If I wssnt a collector it would have been sold a long time ago. But hey glad your enjoying the system and game... even tho... troll lol

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Creepshow2

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The only way this kind of thing will stop is gamers quit supporting companies with release now fix later mentality.

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PHINIX

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@creepshow2: This. The consumers (us en mass) keep telling the companies that it's an ok way to do business.

PHINIX

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator  Online

@creepshow2: Gamers on the internet have been saying that for about a decade now.

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@Mogan: Thankfully, Fallout 76 seems to have rattled gamers enough to wake them up, so this is happening at the perfect time.

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PHINIX

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@Barighm: Wholeheartedly agreed.

PHINIX

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NSA_Protocol44

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This game is really heavy and I would not blame the PS4 (pro) if it's overheating or causing hardware problems.

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@nsa_protocol44: It has nothing to do with overheating but, and this is my theory, the way the game shuts down. Most of the crashes I've seen described occur when shutting the game down (and when it crashes which triggers an expedited shutdown of the app).

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deactivated-64c06b51403e7

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I keep writing this on every forum I can.

I think it also adversely affects CPUs on PCs, because of the excessive usage, leading to temp rise and possible damage to the motherboard.

I have to manually set its affinity in the task manager.

Be careful.

I wouldn't be surprised if the PS4's power cutt-off is due to the same reason.

The funny thing is, it was perfectly "fine" before the day-1-patch.

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mogan

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@proceeder: Pretty much every modern CPU should be able to handle 100% load for extended periods. Like days on end.

If your cooler breaks, pretty much every modern CPU can throttle itself to protect against heat damage.

It's pretty darn hard to burn up a CPU (or a motherboard because of a CPU) anymore.

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deactivated-64c06b51403e7

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@Mogan: You can run yourCPU above 80%, yes. But, for an extended period?

Surely you can see how that may cause thermal damage.

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator  Online

@proceeder: Nah, new Intel and AMD chips should be able to handle it. Wouldn’t be a great chip if it couldn’t run at max (or more, if you’re over clocking). There was a big hoopla about this when AC Origins launched and its DRM was maxing CPUs, but so long as it’s able actually run the game, and you’re cooler’s working, shouldn’t hurt anything.

It’ll throttle itself back if heat gets too high.

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deactivated-64c06b51403e7

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@Mogan: Yes, there is this sort of issue for AC on PCs. And the cause of it is the two DRMs that the game runs when online.

The solution there was to limit the cores or go offline to play the game.

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UltimateBastard

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@proceeder: Not really sure that's the case mate, under 100% load your CPU shouldnt be going over the manufacturers specified temp regardless of what you're doing or for how long. If it is then either there's an issue with your cooling or you had a dodgy CPU to begin with.

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deactivated-64c06b51403e7

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@UltimateBastard: I appreciate that you're trying to help.

But, no.

I've run Anthem on an Asus ROG Strix laptop cooled by 2 external OPolar fans and 4 Corsair AF120 fans on a cool-pad that I custom made and is powered by an external power bank, which reduces the GPU/CPU temp by 40°C effectively if the CPU usage is above 60%.

My other PC, whose temp I've been also monitoring, is an "ABS Battlebox Essential Vortex Andromeda NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Intel i7-7700". ABS is a well-known PC building brand.

Now, there are better systems.

However, there are games more demanding than Anthem, and, Anthem itself used to run pretty smoothly before the day-1-patch on both systems. Also, as I mentioned, the issue would be resolved if I limit the cores that Anthem is assigned to use.

The issue is, you can do none of those on a PS4. The issue is, this clearly demonstrates a lack of optimization.

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UltimateBastard

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Edited By UltimateBastard

@proceeder: I cant speak for the ps4 issues, but the point I'm making is, if you run a stress test on your CPU you are going to get the same high temp results and of course limiting the cores is going to help reduce these temps. Your CPU should be capable of running at 100% load for protracted lengths of time without exceeding the manufacturers recommended max temp for that specific CPU. When overclocking I run anywhere from 12 - 24 hour stress tests as is recommended, the point of which is to check stability and temps. It is completely impossible for anthem to be exceeding the load of these stress tests, completely. As such I say again, it is 100% impossible for anthem to be the cause of your thermal issues, while it may tax your system, this should not be causing an issue. If it is, then the problem is elsewhere, and not necessarily that nice custom fan solution you speak of. Could be the heatsink connection, shit thermal paste or as I said before a dodgy cpu.

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deactivated-64c06b51403e7

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@UltimateBastard: I guess, if you have a thermal system that can handle the 100% CPU load, you're right.

Most gaming laptops don't. I know PS3 doesn't (I checked this with P5, grinding on a hot summer day), and I wouldn't be surprised if PS4 didn't either.

However, as I wrote, this is an optimization issue. The game doesn't need the processing power. Its performance before the patch prooved that.

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@proceeder: Pretty sure it has nothing to do with the hardware but the way the game shuts down. This kind of glitch isn't unprecedented, either.

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deactivated-64c06b51403e7

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@Barighm: Well I'm not as sure as you are about any of this. So, you must know something I don't.

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aross2004

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Edited By aross2004

@proceeder: My PS4 started to sound like a jet engine when I played Anthem so I stopped playing altogether.

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mogan

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@aross2004: That's probably a PS4 thing. God of War did the same thing with the launch model PS4, and the launch Pro. The later versions have a quieter fan/handle heat a little better.

Even so, the PS4 shouldn't be able to brick itself from overheating. Shutdown/lock-up maybe, but not actually damage its own hardware. BioWare figured out how to get it to brick itself though, so who knows. : p

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aross2004

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@Mogan: I don't think it's a heat issue either personally. I just got sick of my PS4 running so loud that I had to totally crank the volume to hear dialog.

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deactivated-64efdf49333c4

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@Mogan: I've had games that made my PS4 jet like crazy for 8 hours straight during a steamy summer day and it never shut down. My Brazilian friend says his PS4 jets so hard, so often (duh, it's Brazil) that he put streamers by the fan. He's had this PS4 since launch. Never had any problems with it.

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deactivated-5e83c14458072

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Most PS4s have gone through so many good games that they completely reject Anthem.

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Atzenkiller

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So much for the claims that the beta was a months old version and most bugs and issues have been fixed by now. Things turned out just as expected after all. Who would have thought?

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ASneakyPoptart

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I feel like issues like this could have been avoided if EA just made sure the game was ready/polished instead of releasing early. Gotta keep those stock holders happy though. Releasing early access games for full price might work out for EA short term, but it's not a long term strategy and I can't wait for it to blow up in their faces. Anyone with half a brain could tell this game was a dumpster fire before release though.

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