Anthem shutting down PlayStation 4 consoles causing Sony to offer refunds

Early yesterday a small part of the Anthem community reported that the game was causing their PlayStation 4 console to quit the game and shut down without being prompted. The group of users has now grown to encompass most Anthem players on PlayStation 4, causing Sony to issue refunds for the game.

Over the course of the day Anthem players were writing posts on reddit about how the game would either quit to the PlayStation 4 home screen, or cause the console to shut down. This latter issue can cause the console to break, since it requires a manual shutdown, like a computer, in order to avoid data corruption.

A few users have reported that their consoles have bricked, meaning that the console itself will now either not turn on, or simply not run games or work as expected. This is an expensive issue for consumers, given that it’s the game that has caused their console to break and not their mistaken unplugging of it, or turning it off.

Amongst the various Reddit threads were some users who reported that Sony had issued them with a refund for the game as soon as it was requested, no questions asked. However, other users didn’t find it so easy to get a refund, with Sony either taking longer to get back to them, or not issuing the refund at all.

Today EA has acknowledged the issue and is asking for help from the Anthem community on PlayStation 4. They need further details about the crashes, meaning that users need to experience the crash and send feedback as they are prompted to when a crash to the home screen occurs. However, no crash data can be sent if the game shuts the console down, since it bypasses this process.

During the demos and early access period for Anthem it was plagued by a number of bugs, from the game putting up barriers to progress in missions, to players getting stuck in loading screens. This latest issue is the worst that’s been in the game by far, since it can cost players their console.

So far Anthem’s start has been rocky, but with a plan for future content beginning this month, and EA actively looking to fix this and all other ongoing issues, maybe it can recover.