It's almost been a year since the announcement that Mass Effect will continue. What has happened since then? Let's take a look.
Can you believe that it's almost been 10 years since the original Mass Effect 3 came out? Almost 10 years since we said goodbye to Commander Shepard? With the release of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, all the feels came back, and we were once again playing as our favorite space hero... only to say goodbye once more at the very end. But what if it wasn't the end?
Some of us that were grinding hard enough got the nice ending and know that Shepard's story isn't over yet. And if that trailer from The Game Awards 2020 proved one thing, it's that the story really isn't over yet. In case you forgot about the trailer or maybe haven't seen it yet, here it is:
The Next Mass Effect: Trailer, Release Date, Story & More
The Next Mass Effect Trailer
What Will The Next Mass Effect Be About?
I've seen many people say that Shepard's story is definitely over, but I seriously think that the next Mass Effect is about Shepard. Having Liara there, trudging through the snow and finding an N7 plate that looks an awful lot like Shepard's would be too much of a coincidence, wouldn't you say? But the fact that BioWare purposely put that "happy ending" in Mass Effect 3 makes me think that they had planned this from the start.
Everyone was pissed about the ending at first, everyone couldn't believe that after three games of building relationships, friendships and alliances, they'd just kill off Shepard... but maybe they never did. Just imagine playing the trilogy in a few years from now, only to be able to continue with the next game straight after the ending of Mass Effect 3... Mass Effect: Shepard's Story Continues (with a better title, I hope).
But that obviously poses the next big question...
When Is The Next Mass Effect's Release Date?
[Update, June 17, 2022]
Unfortunately, we haven't gotten anything official today. What we have are actually just breadcrumbs. You know BioWare. As much as I love them, they're not giving us much to work with, so we just have to pull something out of our hats.
This time, it wasn't us, but MrHulthen over on YouTube. They discovered that on Michael Gamble's LinkedIn, it says that he's been a project manager for the next Mass Effect game since 2019. Remember: BioWare only announced Mass Effect 4/5 in 2020, so that means that the game has been in development for 3 years, not two, as we originally thought.
You can check out his video here:
What does that mean for us? That we might get the game a year sooner if we're lucky. If you read all of my Dragon Age articles, you know that I'm estimating Dragon Age Dreadwolf to release late 2023. After that, all efforts will go to the next Mass Effect. So maybe instead of our original guess of 2026/2027, we can now look to a release in 2025/2026.
It's not much, but we'll take what we can get.
[Update, February 24, 2022]
BioWare has recently come out with a blog post in which they gave an update on the next Mass Effect. They said that they are currently "prototyping new ideas". This, to me, sounds like they're still in the middle of the writing process. They also said that the "number one priority needs to be quality". Since all efforts will be put into Dragon Age 4 for now, I'd say that the release date for Mass Effect 5 is pushed back even further than what we originally anticipated, maybe 2026 or 2027.
[Original article]
You may have heard that I'm a massive BioWare fan. I therefor know that Dragon Age 4 is currently in the works and looks to be much further ahead than the next Mass Effect. My guess is that BioWare will first want to focus on Dragon Age 4 to give the game the launch it deserves. I expect the game to be out either late 2022 or early 2023, all depending on whether we soon will get another trailer for it.
Now, the trailer description for the Mass Effect teaser says "A veteran team at BioWare is in the early stages of what is on the horizon for the Mass Effect franchise," and what that tells me is that the group of people working on this game right now isn't big – yet – and early stages of developmentcould be them having written the story and having made a first trailer to give fans a glimpse of what's ahead.
With all this in mind, I expect The Next Mass Effect to release either late 2024 or sometime 2025.
The Next Mass Effect Platforms
If we keep that in mind and the release is indeed as far away as I just said, then I fully expect the game to release on next-gen only, meaning PS5 and Xbox Series X|S (and, of course, PC). The first next-gen exclusive games are already on the market and by the time the next Mass Effect will release, it's been enough time for everyone to get their hands on a next-gen console.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition reminded every Mass Effect fan of the love they had – or still have – for this franchise. Yes, Andromeda wasn't up to par and BioWare surely is aware of that themselves. Maybe this is their way to make it up to fans. If so, then they've done a good job. We can't wait to see what's in store for our Shepard's.
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