Electronic Arts' closure of its legendary RPG studio BioWare has shaken the video game world. Since the announcement, gamers, fans, and developers alike have mourned the studio’s unrealized potential, especially following the recent reveal of its final project: Mass Effect Universe. In a recent interview with French site BFM, former BioWare developers revealed more about the exciting potential of the studio’s latest Mass Effect project.
Several unnamed developers said the goal was to give players the "ultimate open-world" game. Given the lukewarm reaction to Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017, which wore its open-world features on its sleeve, the direction for Mass Effect Universe to be the "ultimate" open-world game is surprising. That said, developers told BFM that the team at BioWare would have "put aside Andromeda's ideas" to "go beyond" dialogue choices alone and also factor in how players approached a situation.
Whether that meant other gameplay elements, such as combat, or other choices through quests, isn't clear. What is clear is that progress on the next Mass Effect game was going well, despite having some missed deadlines and the team having to start from scratch. The latter largely came from the team switching from the Frostbite Engine to Unreal Engine, since Frostbite was used on Andromeda and Anthem, neither of which was a great fit for open-world or third-person games.
"The truth is that we had to redo everything," Sandra (not her real name) told BFM. Despite the occasional hiccup, the development team remained confident they could meet Mass Effect Universe’s proposed 2028 release date. Unfortunately, EA's decision to shutter the studio means we'll never know exactly what the developers had planned.
With development on Mass Effect Universe going so well, BioWare's shutdown and the cancellation of the single-player sci-fi epic sting even more. Mass Effect may not be gone forever, though. A passionate fanbase is clamoring for the next chapter, and depending on how well the Mass Effect TV series is received, potential profits could entice EA to sell the IP.
Whether it will remains to be seen, but where there's a will, there's a way—and if fans get their way, we will see Mass Effect again in the future.
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