Happy 2022 to every single one of you! With a new year ahead of us, today I'm once more looking into the future of Mass Effect, plunging into what's next for this franchise in 2022, giving a recap on what we know so far about the development of the next Mass Effect game. Now before I get started, I know what you’re thinking… “The next Mass Effect? What about Dragon Age, Jack, isn’t 2022 the year for more Dragon Age info? The next anticipated title to release from BioWare?”
And that’s very true, but there’s an exciting future ahead for Mass Effect that needs to be explored, and I would like to delve more into the Mass Effect franchise on my channel. Also, just last month I created a huge roundup video on every single major news update on Dragon Age 4’s development throughout 2021. So, check that video out if you’re just as interested in the future of Dragon Age.
Anyhow, let’s kick this video off. Since 2018, I’ve been collecting, sourcing and archiving everything we know about the next Mass Effect project so far. So, let’s take it away!
2018:
On N7 Day 2018, BioWare shared that the Edmonton studio had plans for a new Mass Effect game. Former General Manager Casey Hudson shared in an N7 Day BioWare Dev Diary at the time that one of the best things about working at BioWare was coming into the studio every day, dreaming about what the next great Mass Effect game will be.
2019:
Bearing that in mind, a couple of months later, Jason Schreier revealed in a 2019 Kotaku report on The Past & Present Of Dragon Age 4, that after the Mass Effect series 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 had since been warmed back up.
On N7 Day 2019, Casey Hudson dropped a few concept art shots from the original Mass Effect trilogy on Twitter, sharing that the team have so many ideas for things that they want to do in Mass Effect, so much concept art that hasn't yet been brought to life, and so many stories yet to tell.
In another 2019 article written by Jason Schreier, this time regarding the canned Anthem reboot, Jason reported that the next Mass Effect game is in very early development at the Edmonton office under director Mike Gamble, a long-time BioWare producer.
Michael Gamble has been at BioWare since 2009, he has worked on Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect: Andromeda. Given his knowledge and experience working on both the original trilogy and Andromeda, he’s certainly one of the perfect developers helming the next game because he can adapt from Andromeda’s mistakes while carrying the charm that the original trilogy brought.
2020:
On N7 Day 2020, brand-new concept art was revealed for the next Mass Effect, titled “The Mud Skipper.” No doubt referring to the small ship with XT-8 on its side. The character silhouettes in the artwork look similar to a Salarian, Drell, Angara, and someone else.
Fans on Reddit shared a fun fact that the Drell and Salarian silhouettes in the artwork are just flipped versions of Thane and Mordin from the ME2 squad selection menu. So, that just proves that this art piece really should be taken as just concept art, and not denoted to anything else yet.
The N7 Day blog post revealed that a veteran team has been hard at work envisioning the next chapter of the Mass Effect universe. They are in the early stages of the project and can’t say any more just yet, but the team are looking forward to sharing their vision for where we’ll be going next.
Casey Hudson shared a statement about Mass Effect representing years of work and countless special memories, so every year he feels incredibly fortunate to celebrate N7 Day with players around the world. Casey can’t wait to continue their adventure together – revisiting favourite memories in the Mass Effect universe, and creating brand new ones.
Later on, in November 2020, BioWare’s Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development released and shared a few insights into the next Mass Effect project. The book revealed a few brand-new pieces of concept art for the working title, as well as a description of the project, it stated:
“Back to space – a look at the next Mass Effect.
“On the heels of a long-awaited remaster of the Mass Effect trilogy, BioWare now prepares its epic return to space. A veteran team is hard at work envisioning the next big Mass Effect game. Expect amazing new worlds to explore with memorable characters buoyed by the series’ signature choices and consequences.
“There’s an incredible universe of history to draw from, and many more stories for us to tell,” project director Mike Gamble said. “We’re focusing on creating something truly for the fans.”
In this book, “The Mud-Skipper” concept piece returned along with a few new conceptual pieces.
In December 2020, BioWare General Manager Casey Hudson retired from the studio. With Casey’s departure, Gary McKay, Sr. Director of Development Operations, took over as BioWare’s Studio GM.
The Edmonton Journal reported that Casey Hudson’s final day was December 11th, 2020, which was one day after BioWare revealed Dragon Age and Mass Effect trailers at The Game Awards 2020.
Speaking of which, BioWare announced that Mass Effect will continue with a brand-new stunning-cinematic trailer that shook the entire fandom with screams of joy and tears of happiness.
As a summary of the trailer’s contents, considering I’ve already broken down every frame of this trailer in another video.
We can assume the next Mass Effect will be set in the Milky Way Galaxy with Liara T’soni returning as a pivotal role for this new adventure. As well as being a fan favourite, Liara can provide many ties to characters in both the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, considering she made herself known to the Andromeda Initiative; more specifically Alec Ryder, and many key Milky Way factions and figures.
More ties to the Andromeda Galaxy have been found, given this mysterious sixth ark that launched for Andromeda, however, never arrived with the other arks, nor was it discovered by Ryder.
And finally, the trailer featured many quotes from human pop culture and history, showcasing the development of humanity's space conquest and the increasing search for extra-terrestrial intelligence since the early 1900s, up to the events of Mass Effect. I believe this portrayed that the human race is still a pivotal plot in Mass Effect going forward, and may allude to the next player protagonist.
But that’s just speculation and assumptions, a few other highlighted Mike Gamble tweets regarding this trailer’s contents are as followed:
Michael Gamble confirmed that the Reapers were in this trailer.
Gamble said that it was intentional that the opening shot of the trailer had pointed imagery of two galaxies. They showed both for a reason.
Just like Michael Gamble, many of the Mass Effect trilogy veterans are working on this next project, like Parrish Ley, the cinematic designer of the trilogy, and Dusty Everman who brought the Normandy to life, returning as a narrative designer.
2021:
In 2021, previous Global Brand Manager at BioWare, Hillary Heskett took the leap and joined Mike Gamble on the next Mass Effect game as a Narrative Producer, as she confirmed on Twitter.
Incredibly exciting to see Hillary take on this new role within BioWare, I’m absolutely wishing Hillary the best on her new conquest working on the next Mass Effect’s narrative.
On N7 Day 2021, the official Mass Effect Twitter account tweeted that they had another N7 Day surprise from the team working on the next Mass Effect followed up with this astonishing promotional poster on the next game. Not concept art, but an actual proper poster.
Considering I’ve spent time already dissecting this poster in another video, I’ll skip to my TL:DR, I think that this promo poster most likely represents that BioWare are choosing an ending from the original trilogy and just pushing ahead with one of them as canon - which is honestly something a lot of people want for the sake of future narratives in the Milky Way galaxy.
By the looks of things given this poster and the previous trailer, the Reapers and the Geth are both frozen over in ice, it seems like the destroy ending is showcased. Destroy was the only way to neutralise all synthetic life, which obviously, both the Geth and the Reapers are.
So, are BioWare finding new ways to bring back the Geth? It would certainly seem so based on this promo. It does need to be said that the Geth were testing the waters outside of the Milky Way galaxy, so this could also showcase a different galaxy that the squad have travelled to, recovering the Geth. This may not relate to the trilogy’s ending, even though, I’m getting that vibe.
Another thing, if the crater in the middle are whatever remains of a Mass Relay, perhaps that’s the main questline of the next game, to rebuild the Mass Relays by scavenging the tech of defeated synthetics.
In relation to that, maybe the reason the squad have arrived at this crater is not to re-activate or find a way to bring the Geth back but to use their technologies for something else. For example, in Mass Effect: Andromeda’s early initiative training videos that were used to market the game, we discovered that the Geth had the technology to observe the Andromeda galaxy, and the Andromeda Initiative used the Geth’s technology for themselves to scout out the Andromeda. Thus proving that Geth tech is more invaluable than we might’ve thought, perhaps the new squad are on the hunt for Geth tech to find the Andromeda galaxy or other galaxies - bridging the gap between the two games, creating a sequel to both.
That’s at least my biggest hypothesis, why else would this squad be looking for the Geth? Well, for many other wack reasons, they were powerful and intelligent synthetics, but what do you think? Do you think this poster is a visual representation that the Geth will make a physical return in the next game, or are you more in line with my thinking that we may use their tech? Or do you straight-up believe that Legion is going to make a come-back?
Moving on to the final story of 2021, trusted VentureBeat reporter, Jeff Grubb revealed a huge scoop that the next Mass Effect game may utilise the Unreal Engine instead of EA’s mandated Frostbite engine that’s proved to be a tumultuous time for previous BioWare games.
Jeff reported that publisher Electronic Arts and developer BioWare are seriously considering using Unreal Engine for the next game in the Mass Effect series. This information primarily comes from an EA job listing for a technical director for Mass Effect 5. That post says the publisher is looking for candidates who have “experience with Unreal Engine [or higher].” Jeff confirmed through multiple sources that this is because everything is on the table when it comes to tech for a new Mass Effect — and that includes potentially replacing EA’s in-house Frostbite engine with Unreal.
BioWare built the first three Mass Effect games on Unreal, which is a bundle of tools that devs can license from Epic Games to put together new games. For Mass Effect: Andromeda, BioWare switched to EA’s Frostbite, which developer DICE originally created for its Battlefield shooters. But Mass Effect — and BioWare’s follow-up Anthem — lost something in the transition from Unreal to Frostbite, and that was apparent in elements like ambient world animation. Where a nightclub in the original Mass Effect would have dozens of dancing characters, Anthem’s characters would remain motionless and still until you approached them.
For EA, however, Frostbite’s appeal was about saving money. Since it owned the tech, it wouldn’t have to make any licensing arrangements with Epic or other outside firms.
Jeff also tweeted that Dragon Age 4 is still using the Frostbite engine and is expected to release in 2023. Jeff replied to Pyo Fire who asked him when will the next Mass Effect release? Jeff said that it will come years after the next Dragon Age - which is to be expected.
So, we’re not going to see the next Mass Effect for some time yet, but that’s okay, of course, we want the game to take as much time as it needs, plus let’s focus on the next Dragon Age’s release first, right?
There was another scoop on the next Mass Effect’s potential Unreal Engine possibility, BioWare producer Brenon Holmes recently tweeted about an open position at the company for an associate technical director, and the ideal candidate will have experience with Unreal Engine 4 and 5.
So, it most certainly seems that the next Mass Effect will be created on the Unreal Engine, which is a huge advantage for the next game’s development.
So, what is next for Mass Effect in 2022?
Maybe we’ll have another tease or sneak peek this year, particularly at N7 Day 2022, like a new promo poster, concept art, maybe even a small blog post. But there’s still a ways away until the next Mass Effect releases. However, we may hear more about that Mass Effect show that’s currently in the works.
On November 23rd, 2021, a report from Deadline said that following the strong performance of Wheel of Time as one of the most-watched series premieres of the year, representatives for the popular streaming platform are considering how future adapted works may slot into the Prime Video portfolio. Among those “hopeful” projects is an adaptation of Mass Effect from Electronic Arts. The wording that Amazon is “hopeful” to one day work on a Mass Effect TV series serves as a soft confirmation that talks are underway but not completely resolved.
So. there’s a possibility that we may hear more about that working TV project, which is incredibly exciting! With that, there’s everything we know about the next Mass Effect game as it slowly develops throughout the years. The next game sounds promising so far, the team has plenty of veterans and an incredibly solid director, not to mention, switching to the Unreal Engine would be a fantastic transition for BioWare because we all know how much of a hassle the Frostbite Engine has been.
I’m optimistic, but what do you think? Are you excited? Do you have reservations? Waiting to see how BioWare handle Dragon Age 4 before you build hype for a new Mass Effect game? Let me know all your thoughts down below, for all your Mass Effect and Dragon Age updates, of course, you’re already in the right place. I’m super excited for this year and all the fantastic content I’ll be creating for you fine folks, I hope you’re taking care, and I’ll see you in the next one!