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New Mass Effect Game Reportedly In Very Early Development At BioWare Edmonton

It sounds like we won't hear anything concrete on the project for a very long time.

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Apparently all of those Mass Effect-related tweets this past N7 Day wasn't just BioWare employees teasing fans. According to a report, the studio is working on a fifth Mass Effect title.

According to Kotaku, BioWare Edmonton--the studio responsible for developing the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series--is "in very early development" on a new Mass Effect game. The project is being led by BioWare project director Mike Gamble--whose previous work includes serving as the producer for Mass Effect: Andromeda and lead producer for Anthem.

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Now Playing: The History of Mass Effect

This past N7 Day--an annual holiday BioWare holds every November 7 to celebrate Mass Effect--several BioWare tweets hinted that work on a new Mass Effect title had officially begun. "Where do you want Mass Effect to go in the future?" Gamble tweeted, following up that there are still "so many stories yet to tell." BioWare boss Casey Hudson tweeted that he's been thinking about "where [BioWare wants] to go next" for Mass Effect and also posted several pieces of previously unreleased Mass Effect concept art--ideas that the studio hadn't yet "brought to life."

However, before N7 Day, BioWare was already insisting that more Mass Effect games are on the way. In February 2019, Hudson said that Mass Effect is "very much alive." Gamble added that "of course" BioWare isn't finished with Mass Effect.

In celebration of N7 Day 2019, BioWare also added limited-time Mass Effect-themed cosmetics to Anthem, including four new javelin skins, a javelin wrap, and an emote. In the aforementioned Kotaku report, sources at BioWare state that the studio is not yet done with Anthem. Though exact details are still in flux, BioWare wants to completely overhaul Anthem, transforming it into an "Anthem 2.0 or Anthem Next."

"We spent a few months just tearing [Anthem] down and figuring out what needed to change fundamentally," one person told Kotaku. "And we've been rebuilding for another few months since."

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AstroGazer

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Edited By AstroGazer

I liked the mass effect series. I liked Andromeda and was hoping for a follow up. There was the 1 message on a terminal that referred to mass effect and that was it. The only problem I had with Androm was the followers were emotionless. Mass effects Garrus was the best, Legion should of been in it from the beginning, they were all excellent followers. their conversations between them was entertaining. Andromeda seemed to loose all that.

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pixelstuff

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Edited By pixelstuff

Well let's hope they learned their lesson about using a game engine not designed for the type of game they want to build. Unless they've been able to re-engineer Frostbite in last couple years, I hope Casey Hudsen will push to go back to Unreal Engine, like the first three Mass Effect games. It seems like that was half of the problems with ME:A and also with Anthem.

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Royas

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Used to be I'd get excited at even a hit of a new Bioware game, but that was then, this is now. They haven't had a great track record of late, and the strong EA influence is not helping. Even in Mass Effect 3, they were starting to falter, but since then they have fallen apart as a studio. After the Anthem debacle and the mediocre Andromeda, they are just like Blizzard and Bethesda, they've spent all of their previously built up goodwill from the public.

Since the departure of their founders, they've been going downhill fast. I'll believe they can make another worthy Mass Effect game when I see it.

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Sepewrath

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Need to have Casey Hudson making all the calls on this one. Hope to see a return to form for the series after the big letdown of Andromeda.

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raven6666

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...I don't think we will have a better ME than previous ones.. well maybe better than last one... but I think Bioware should focus something different...

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KillzoneSnake

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No thanks. Why dont they remaster the trilogy with ray tracing 4k next gen instead.

Bioware is dead. EA has eaten them up. I buy no more games from EA ever.

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator

@KillzoneSnake: What if they make a really good one?

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KillzoneSnake

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@mogan: haha... yeah miracles can happen

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Atzenkiller

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Oh god, they're letting the lead produces for Andromeda and Anthem make another sequel? Are you kidding me? Is he trying to beat those games, creating the worst game imaginable of all time? I mean, even if it turned out really bad again, there'd still be plenty of people who'd still like it and there's certainly worse low budget trash out there. But Andromeda was nothing like any past Bioware titles quality wise. And I'm not even sure what to say about Anthem, which seemed like a very poor attempt at copying Destiny. A game that was already lacking any story, which is what Bioware used to be really good at.

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Sepewrath

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@Atzenkiller: Well they do have Casey Hudson now and I assume he would have the final say on everything in the game. And Anthem had fun gameplay, it just lacked any substantial content to use it with.

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Dilandau88

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We bang ok?

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waelse1

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Mass Effect 1-3 told a closed story IMO, so they decided to go to Andromeda for #4. I'd love nothing more than to see another game but not sure where it would go. Could they tell a good story in Andromeda? Maybe pick an ending from #3 and move hundreds of years into the future? Good luck to them.

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gamingdevil800

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Will see you all in 10 years if Bioware is still around to make this game.

See Ya Space Cowboy

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oldtaku

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I'm past getting excited about anything from Bioware (including Dragon Age 4) until they prove they can make anything good again.

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Runeweaver

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He can say its alive as much as he wants whilst its in the hands of EA its very much dead.

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ScreamingSatori

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@Runeweaver: All of the Mass Effect games were published by EA.

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VakarianGirl

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@screamingsatori: Yep - I think by now it has been displayed that it is not necessarily EA that is at fault in the bigger picture here. Yes they may press for dumb sh*t like live services and microtransactions - but to be honest if the game rocks nobody cares if those things are there or not. BIOWARE are the reason that their games lately are poorly written studies in wokeness with characters that belong in a French farce.

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Runeweaver

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@screamingsatori: Mass effect 1 was joint published by Microsoft game studio and EA, So EA had no input in the development.

Mass effect 2 was midway through development when EA bought Bioware, So its likely EA didn't effect it at all, And EA was just started pushing service gaming Microtransactions and lootboxes.

Mass effect 3 was the first game they likely had a major effect on, putting in multiplayer too sell lootboxes, which reduced development time on the single player game so the ending was a lazy mess.

And the less said about Andromeda the better.

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Atzenkiller

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@Runeweaver: Don't be a moron. Everyone who's played ME3 knows that there were no MTs in the single player campaign and the online mode was completely optional. But all those suckers spending money on MTs did finance five bigger dlcs for that online mode, released over a year, which everyone got for free. So to this day this game still had pretty much the best implemenation of MTs I've seen.

Only idiots would have spent any money on the online mode since there was nothing you couldn't get just by playing the game, nor was it a huge grind to get enough to buy a pack of gear that would cost you a few dollars. It was more like play one match and get enough credits to buy a gear pack that's worth $5 or so.

No other game I've seen since then has really put any of the money from those morons back into the game to provide free content to everyone. Nowadays everyone's just milking the morons with too much money and keeping it all for the company's profits. While selling any dlc for additional profit.

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VakarianGirl

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@Atzenkiller: Thank you. That was one of the best explainings of why ME3's multiplayer was (not only acceptable and not evil), but actually a FANTASTIC example of how to DO a multiplayer aspect with MT and yet keep it CIVIL.

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Yomigaeru

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Considering the recent departures of key Bioware staff and Bioware's recent efforts, there's not much to be hopeful for. Here's hoping (in vain, most likely) that EA actually learned something from their recent projects, and don't force Bioware into using tools that don't work well with the games their trying to make (Frostbite) or saddle the projects with unsavory business decisions (MTXs, live-service nonsense).

Maybe the reception of Jedi Fallen Order (which is positive, thus far) will show them that you can make quality single-player games with games-as-a-service shenanigans...and people will still enjoy them.

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RedX555

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Bioware is never getting money from me again.

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johnd13

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I have very little faith in Bioware anymore. But the optimist in me really hopes Mass Effect can be great again.

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DhracoX

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I hope they continue the Andromeda storyline, IDC if they change protagonists, I just want to get to explore a brand new Galaxy this time

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Coleman11b

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I look forward to months of virtue signaling about how diverse their characters are.

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VakarianGirl

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@coleman11b: And gender fluid. And faux-hawky. And open-minded.

The days of people seeing the appeal in a blue-blooded turian who can barely keep it in his pants seem looong gone........... '_'

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PlaystationZone

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Bring shepherd back

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with_teeth26

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this is the same studio that made Anthem so pretty tough to get excited or be at all optimistic at this point (coming from someone who actually enjoyed Andromeda)

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