Anthem Working Title: What was Anthem's Working Title?

Anthem's working title was different from the name under which it was ultimately published. While not unusual for many projects which see a rebranding before release, the change to what would become "Anthem" is yet one more marker of the game's troubled production.

Anthem was released on Feb. 22, 2019, for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows. Developed by BioWare and published by EA, Anthem is an online multiplayer third-person shooter with elements of role-playing games. Set on a fictional unnamed planet, Anthem sees players take on the role of adventurers called Freelancers who gear up in powered armor exosuits called Javelins.

Anthem was poorly received by critics and public, with particular discontent voiced from long-term BioWare fans who disliked the shift away from traditional story-focused single-player experiences for a multiplayer repetitive quest-for-loot style gameplay akin to Bungie's Destiny series.

A report published by Kotaku detailed the issues that Anthem faced in its development, marketing and release. One particular instance was the revelation that mere days before the game's official unveiling, it wasn't even called Anthem.

Anthem Working Title: What was Anthem's Working Title?

Per the report, Anthem was originally called Dylan during development. It is common for games to go by innocuous names during its beginning development stages before marketing and publishing are involved.

By the lead-up to the game's unveiling at E3 2017, it had been baptized as Beyond, to coincide with the game's idea of pushing past boundaries and exploring a new world.

Less than a week before E3, publisher and BioWare parent company Electronic Arts ruled that trademark rights for Beyond were too difficult to acquire, and the game was hastily renamed to Anthem, a back-up title which had significantly less thematic resonance or meaning with the game than Beyond.

Beyond has previously been used in video game titles such as Quantic Dream's Beyond: Two Souls and Ubisoft's Beyond Good and Evil.

Anthem continues to receive support post-release with patches and updates. Thus far, there has been no update that alters the game's title.

Images courtesy of BioWare and Electronic Arts Inc.