Today I'm once more looking into the future of Mass Effect, plunging into what's next for this franchise in 2020, and giving a recap on what we know so far about the development of a new Mass Effect game.
Last year, I did a similar video where I explored where Mass Effect could potentially go from here on out since Andromeda ruffled the series's feathers. I speculated on a few ideas I'd personally like to see for a future game, concepts like a spin-off in the Milky way, or a sequel to Andromeda. I also spoke with Cole from The Kingdom about different ideas and approaches we have for the franchise going forward, you can check both of those videos out, links in the description.
But with it being the start of 2020, I figured there's no better time to talk about what we know about the future of Mass Effect so far, and the potential of witnessing this hit Sc-Fi franchise make a return.
So, kicking this off, I think the first thing we need to clarify is the fact that Mass Effect isn't dead, it's quite the contrary - in fact according to Jason Schrieier, the franchise is warming back up.
In Jason Schreier's 2019 report on "The Past & Present Of Dragon Age 4" shared by Kotaku, Jason said a few things about the future of Mass Effect, having written that after Mass Effect was "put on ice in 2017" following BioWare's release of what many considered to be a disappointing entry with Mass Effect: Andromeda, the next game in the franchise "has since been warmed back up". However, it's currently unclear at this point in time as to how far along in development the supposed new game in the science fiction series actually is.
And if that's not enough for you, well let's talk about Casey Hudson, the original Game Director of the Mass Effect trilogy, and the General Manager at BioWare. He wants you (personally) to know that Mass Effect is his baby, and the team at BioWare have been dreaming about many future concepts for where the franchise can go next.
Over the past two N7 Days, Casey has reiterated the same point that Mass Effect games will continue on, and the team at BioWare are constantly thinking about where the franchise will go next.
Which brings us to the next Kotaku report, according to Jason Schreier's late-2019 expose' in-which he uncovers the plans for a reboot of Anthem, "the next Mass Effect game is in very early development at the Edmonton office under director Mike Gamble, a long-time BioWare producer."
So, Mass Effect as a franchise is indeed not dead, and a new game is currently in deep pre-production.
Mike Gamble has been working at BioWare on the Mass Effect team since Mass Effect 2, he's certainly the perfect developer to be helming the ship of a new Mass Effect project. Under Casey Hudson's management, both of them are original Mass Effect developers and understand what makes Mass Effect great.
Last N7 Day on Twitter, both Mike Gamble and Casey Hudson shared that they're incredible excited about the future of Mass Effect.
Mike asked everyone "where do you want Mass Effect to go in the future?" Showing that BioWare are certainly looking to the fans in terms of what they'd like to see for a future title.
Casey dropped a few concept art shots from the original trilogy on Twitter, saying that "We have so many ideas for things we want to do in #MassEffect, so much concept art that hasn't yet been brought to life, and so many stories yet to tell."
Once more proving that plans are being pushed ahead for a new Mass Effect project. Another big tweet from Mike Gamble came out of an Anthem E3 discussion. Mike skipped attendance of last year's E3 conferences, when someone said they'd loved to have met him, he replied saying: "oh you can bet I'll be there next year......." https://twitter.com/GambleMike/status/1136814543529578496
Huge emphasis on the ellipsis there, considering that Mike is the project lead for this upcoming Mass Effect game, and he's going to be at EA Play and E3 2020, this is a big tease for something Mass Effect related to be shown off this year.
Now, I don't want to assume what you're thinking, but I highly doubt that this could be the very early Mass Effect game that's in development. Perhaps they could be showing off some developer diaries of the pre-production stages of this project, but if any new, upcoming BioWare game is to be shown at E3 2020, it's got to be Dragon Age 4, with it's expected release window of at least April 2022. However, I do have another idea at what Mike could be specifically attending E3 2020 for, and that's to reveal a Mass Effect trilogy remaster.
We know that EA's 2019 earning call announced that we are going to see fan favourite remasters come back, and in January, BioWare's posted a Mass Relay tweet relating to the first Mass Effect game and it's since kicked off an outcry for a Mass Effect trilogy remaster for current generation consoles and the Nintendo Switch.
So, could this be the reason Mike is going to E3/EA Play? Are we finally going to be able to play the trilogy once more in HD quality on many different platforms? We're just going to have to wait and see until June.
And the final story we have comes from Forbes, in an article written by Paul Tassi, apparently Mass Effect, nor Dragon Age were mentioned in EA's 2021/2022 earnings call. Paul paints this as a bad thing, because it means we won't be seeing these games for a fair while, or they've been cancelled. This is far from the truth because in their previous earnings call, EA stated that Dragon Age 4 would not be releasing any sooner than April 2022/2023.
So, of course, if the next Mass Effect and Dragon Age games aren't coming out for at least another 2 years, then there's no reason to mention them in your earnings call. With that, we can expect the next Mass Effect title to release in no time soon.