Next Mass Effect is Still in Pre-Production

Things did not exactly go to plan for the Mass Effect franchise after the conclusion of its original trilogy, with 2017’s Mass Effect: Andromeda largely having been a letdown on multiple fronts, though BioWare has been working on the sci-fi series’ next instalment. The developer confirmed back in December 2020 that it had started working on the next Mass Effect game, but two and a half years on from that initial tease, how far away from launch is the game at this point?

It’s still quite a ways off, it seems. In a recent blog update announcing plans to hand over Star Wars: The Old Republic development to Broadsword Online, BioWare GM Gary McKay offered a brief update on the next Mass Effect game, confirming that the project is still in the pre-production phase.

“For Mass Effect, we continue pre-production with a core team of veteran storytellers who are bringing the deep franchise history forward in a spectacular new way,” McKay wrote.

Since the official confirmation of its development, details on the next instalment of the franchise have been scarce, if that, and have been limited to the odd piece of concept art being shared here and there, and BioWare offering hints on how the sequel might not be abandoning Andromeda’s storyline entirely. A brief, mystrious teaser was also shared late last year.

It’s also been confirmed that unlike Mass Effect: Andromeda, which was powered by the Frostbite engine, the next game in the series is being built on Unreal Engine 5.

BioWare has said that its renewed focus on Mass Effect is part of the developer’s decision to focus exclusively on developing “immersive, emotionally charged, single player games.” Of course, also part of that inititive is Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, which the studio is continuing to “build, polish, and tune” on the road to launch, which is presumably next sometime next year.