As BioWare continues its “restructuring” campaign following the catastrophic underperformance of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which has led to a number of developers being terminated or reassigned to other studios within Electronic Arts, the gaming community’s attention is riveted firmly on the team’s next planned game, commonly referred to as Mass Effect 5, and unfortunately for many, the next installment in the once universally acclaimed franchise still seems a long way from launch.
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First announced back in 2020 at The Game Awards, the next chapter of the Mass Effect universe has been kept under wraps for over four years at this point, with only occasional rumors reminding us of its existence. Planned as a continuation of the mainline series – hence the Mass Effect 5 moniker – the game is being developed by veterans who worked on the acclaimed original trilogy, including Preston Watamaniuk, Derek Watts, and Parrish Ley, with Executive Producer Michael Gamble leading the team.
Recently, Gamble took to Twitter to reveal in an off-hand comment that the game is still in its pre-production stage – the development phase farthest from the “ship it tomorrow” stage. While the studio now intends to focus primarily on ME5, it seems all but certain that the game won’t see the light of day for at least a few more years, with some commenters joking that it might not arrive until the PlayStation 6 and Xbox Series 2 era.
Unfortunately, besides the aforementioned quartet, it’s difficult to determine how many people are actually working on the next Mass Effect title. Several reports have indicated that, following the recent firings, BioWare’s workforce has been reduced to fewer than 100 employees, down from over 200 just two years ago.
At the same time, BioWare General Manager Gary McKay claims that they “don’t require support from the full studio” and the team is not actively hiring new workers, suggesting one of four possibilities: either Mass Effect 5 will be significantly smaller in scale compared to The Veilguard, hiring will commence once the turmoil within EA has settled, the remaining developers will have to endure crunch and take on twice the workload, or the recently laid-off staff weren’t contributing much to the previous project.
In the immediate future, it appears that Mass Effect 5 will remain a mystery wrapped in an enigma. So far, the only thing we know for sure is that, unlike its predecessors, it will be powered by Unreal Engine 5 instead of Frostbite, a detail all but confirmed by BioWare’s Producer Brenon Holmes in 2021 and recently verified with 100% certainty to 80 Level by a former BioWare developer.
Another intriguing detail we know about ME5 is that it may feature Commander Shepard, potentially making one of the five Mass Effect 3 endings canon. Spotted by YouTuber MrHulthen in 2022, the official BioWare Gear store once featured a lithograph related to the upcoming game, suggesting that the original Mass Effect trilogy’s protagonist will return:
“The show goes on. Shepard’s final quest may have ended the threat of the Reapers but at great cost including Earth itself,” the product’s description read at the time. “While Shepard and the survivors are left to pick up the pieces, fans are left wondering what’s next.”
Shortly after, however, the mention of Shepard was removed, and Gamble explained that it was a mistake made “by the people who run the store and aren’t familiar with the game,” which could’ve been the truth, and just as likely could’ve been an attempt at damage control to prevent a major story detail from getting spoiled way ahead of time – only BioWare knows for sure, and BioWare isn’t telling.
So, what do you think about Mass Effect 5? Will it bring back the glory days of the original trilogy, or will it be Andromeda all over again? Share your thoughts down in the comments!
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