If you’ve been wondering when it’ll be safe to play Anthem on your PlayStation 4 — you know, given the reports of some PS4s spontaneously powering down in the middle of a game — developer BioWare now has an answer. Two answers, actually.
BioWare confirms Anthem is crashing PS4s, will fix in next week’s patch
The company insists the game isn’t bricking consoles
The company insists the game isn’t bricking consoles
Image: EA/BioWare
is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
BioWare’s online gaming boss Chad Robertson has officially tweeted that the team has successfully identified “several causes” why some consoles might be crashing, and will fix some of those issues in a patch next week.
But also, Robertson says that even today, BioWare’s seen no indication that Anthem has ever “bricked” a console, disabling it to the point that it won’t turn on again without being repaired. If you take him at his word, there’s “no risk of damage” even if you start playing Anthem without waiting for the patch.
That does make sense in light of forum posts indicating that fixing a PS4 that’s supposedly been “bricked” by Anthem is as easy as starting your PS4 in safe mode and rebuilding its database.
But personally, I’d wait for the patch. In my experience, abruptly shutting down a computer with a spinning magnetic hard drive is almost always a recipe for disaster. If that’s what Anthem is truly doing to some PS4s (I haven’t witnessed it personally, so I can’t say), better safe than sorry.
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