BioWare Confirms They Are Actively Working On A New Mass Effect. They Only Have A Singular Teaser Image To Share

So, multiple gaming news outlets have not painted the most upbeat picture inside BioWare following news that EA completed a leveraged buyout led by the Saudi Arabian government and Jarred Kushner. In fact, some even went so far as to say that their anonymous sources from within the legendary studio felt like they were just waiting for the axe to fall. Considering how BioWare's normal wheelhouse doesn't completely mesh with EA's normal portfolio of games which are usually sport games or online ones primarily supported by microtransactions or season passes, the sentiment seems to be that either BioWare is getting one last shot to turn things around with the next Mass Effect game or the studio very much will not live to see that Mass Effect game come to pass.

Knowing that, BioWare decided to use this year's N7 Day not to reassure concerned fans with even a demo trailer or clear statement about what the Mass Effect game would involve. Nope. Instead, they announced a Mass Effect TV series that has been inked by Amazon and will take place after the original trilogy. Oh, and they issued a statement on their site confirming that the next Mass Effect is ABSOLUTELY still in active development and things are going just swimmingly! But that statement briefly had Mass Effect fans briefly in a tizzy because it turns out there was an Easter Egg hidden within it. If you decoded a Krogan message, you got to see the image above titled "Civil War" which Mass Effect lead Mike Gamble is a hint on what the next Mass Effect will involve.

Now, I normally don't get concerned about the state of a game based on an Easter Egg or teaser image, but Jesus Christ, that's all BioWare has to share after YEARS for radio silence? This game has been in active development for years and they still don't feel comfortable about sharing even a sentence about what the scope and sequence of the game will be, let alone a teaser trailer or any evidence of what the gameplay will be like. That's... really concerning if you ask me. But hey, maybe this Mass Effect TV show is at least a sign EA is committed to see this game release at the very least.

The next Mass Effect game will be entirely composed of a Jason Schreier scoop. Maybe a chapter in a far-off book. I have zero faith that EA will release this game, or that if they do, it will be any better than DA: The Veilguard. It really sucks to see.

I celebrated N7 Day by making a drink from the Mass Effect cocktail book.

As far as I can tell, there is exactly one recent adaptation that Amazon has done well--The Expanse--and that one had three seasons of good writing and good will saved up before Amazon picked it up, not to mention lots of direct involvement from the creators. Rings of Power and Wheel of Time were both...whatever those shows are, and the Tomb Raider show never even got into pre-production.

The drink was good, but I should've made it stronger.

Which comes out first: Mass Effect (Working Title) or Elder Scrolls VI: Subtitle to Be Determined?

@shindig: My money is on Half Life 3 somehow beating them both.

What's funny is that I think this new Mass Effect will come out before GTA VI does.

@av_gamer: That's quite the stretch.

Bloomberg report Bioware have less than 100 people and the new Mass Effect was only in pre-production earlier this year, if the next Mass Effect comes out and that's a big if we are looking at 3-4 years.

Henderson reported GTA6 being feature complete and Take 2 posted big losses the last few quarters paying for GTA's development, ready or not GTA6 releases in the next year or so they can't afford not to at this point.

Leveraged buyouts are notorious for gutting and steamling the ones with large amounts of debt like EA's can often fail, betting on AI to cut costs that much seems like a recipe for disaster. Bioware could easily be sacrificed in the looming hunt for efficiency.

@thepanzini: All that is nice to know, but I was obviously joking because of the recent delay of GTA VI until November next year, which didn't surprise no one.

@av_gamer: I laughed!

@av_gamer: Wasn't 100% sure, lol. Thought you might have gone mad.

Mass Effect 5 isn't real, Bioware won't last long enough to put anything out.

Maybe a few years after Bioware finally gets shuttered EA will put out some craven slop mobile game based on Mass Effect.

I got DA: Veilguard on PS Plus and haven’t broken it open yet. I’ve never gotten past three minutes in any of those games—not because they’re bad, just because I turn them on, get excited and impressed by the look and the giant adventure I’m about to go on after making my character… then I go online and see it’s a firestorm of people crying that the game critics gave high scores to what they say is the worst in franchise history. Total trash, apparently. Or it’s like what happened with some outlets: weeks of praise about how much you can do, followed by complaints that there’s too much to do, and the devs needing to tell people to just leave the first biome.

Overall, it’s all that negativity that seeps in and makes me say, “I’ll play it soon,” and then I never get to it. Sadly.

I think, on paper, all the stuff people cry about with this game is similar to the hate for Concord. I played that game’s beta and thought it was just a game, not this travesty of political talking points people made it out to be. Games fail all the time and it's not just cause one reason, they just put out a game when the public was busy with other stuff that's similar or they'd rather learn to play. Online people make it seem like it was all because of culture war stuff. Same with Forspoken and Dustborn, they seem like normal games with some cringy "Hip fellow kids" dialogue here and there, which we used to get all the time. Like, dialogue in games isn’t always prestige Last of Us stuff, and even that’s iffy sometimes.

I don’t know. With Veilguard, the hate for the last Mass Effect and being told it gets super bad and glitchy made me bounce off it…but I was having fun in the first part. I didn’t get to the “bad” yet. I really want to go back to it one day. The “my face is tired” stuff didn’t really bother me, I don’t know. I still wonder what the rest of that game is like, since I thought the maneuvering and new gunplay worked alright from what I played. I’m guessing the big issue is that it’s just another one of those—not really game-changing?

I also played after some updates that probably cleaned it up. Still wonder if the story and later stuff is good. I tend to lean more toward IGN’s value for RPGs versus the public, who seem to dislike most of the newer ones. So I’m hoping Veilguard really is a 9/10 like they said.

@topcyclist: To be clear, I enjoyed the first 2/3 of Veilguard a lot. The game is way too damn long, and later story beats felt very unearned to me. It's definitely worth putting a Mass Effect's length (30-40 hours) into, but honestly there's no need to finish it. Particularly since I doubt there will ever be a sequel in the franchise again.

Being good, just shy of great, feels like the ceiling for ME5 based on the constant tumult EA has put Bioware through. Now they have added pressure to make enough money to help drag the company out of its newfound $20 billion debt, and I just don't think they stand any chance. Would love to be proven wrong.

You know what I 100% believe that is the TV show flops the game will cease production. For better ors wose I think if the show flops ist will inevitable cause a change of heart with the new owners/backers.

To me that means a Mass Effect TV show, that I would otherwise be excited about, fills me with dread. If the show is great....win/win. But, truthfully to do that universe justice woudl be expensive.

@monkeyking1969: Amazon listed Q4 2026 as the potential production date for the show, were looking at ~3 years. If Bioware learned any lessons and actually started development with cohesive a plan the game should be too far along to cancel, at the very least we should see gameplay.

@av_gamer: I only see a race to cancelation between those 2...