A trailer for BioWare's cancelled Mass Effect game has appeared online, and it's confirmed to be real. The footage, titled Mass Effect Universe, first surfaced on Reddit and shows in-engine scenes from the project that was in development until the studio's closure.
EA's decision to close BioWare followed the company's buyout, but the closure means the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises are now unlikely to get a new entry. BioWare had been developing a new Mass Effect game for the past six years, having shown a teaser trailer in December 2020, but nothing had been seen since.
What the leaked trailer shows
The trailer features a new protagonist and returning character Liara T'Soni, who also appeared in the initial teaser. It would have been set in the Milky Way Galaxy, unlike Mass Effect: Andromeda, sometime after the Reaper war from the original trilogy. In other words, it would have been the actual Mass Effect 4.
A disclaimer at the beginning of the clip states it is in-engine footage from 'our small team' using pre-production assets. While the video's legitimacy was initially unclear, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier confirmed it is real in a post on Bluesky.
Confirmation and context
“Can confirm that this is a real trailer of the Mass Effect game that BioWare was developing up until its closure yesterday,” Schreier wrote. It's likely the video was released by someone internally at BioWare, possibly as a bid to save the project if EA is willing to sell the IP.
However, EA appears to still be interested in holding onto Mass Effect for other projects. According to IGN, the previously announced Mass Effect TV show is still in development at Amazon MGM Studios, despite the studio's closure.
What's next for the franchise
While it's unclear if another Mass Effect game will ever be made, other projects are in the works from developers behind the original trilogy. Sci-fi role-playing game Exodus is set to launch next year from Archetype Entertainment, a studio founded by former BioWare veterans. Meanwhile, Star Wars: Fate Of The Old Republic by Arcanaut Studios is being overseen by the original director of both Knights Of The Old Republic and the original Mass Effect trilogy.
