As part of the closure of BioWare, Electronic Arts has announced that work on the next Mass Effect game, which fans had widely dubbed Mass Effect 5, has now been canceled. Following the dismal reception to Mass Effect: Andromedain 2017, BioWare revealed in late 2020 that it was working on a new entry in the series. Unlike Andromeda, Mass Effect 5was expected to tie in with the original trilogy of games, with fan-favorite characters teased to be returning. Sadly, for those who longed to see BioWare’s vision with this new Mass Effect game, it will now never see the light of day.
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In a message posted to social media today, BioWare confirmed that it would be closing its doors. Rather than hand off its work on Mass Effect 5to a new studio, BioWare shared that the project would now be scrapped entirely. This brings about an end to the only known Mass Effect game that is known to be in development, and essentially puts the series on ice potentially for good.
“After more than three decades of shared adventures, BioWare is closing and early development on the next Mass Effect project is ending,” the studio said.
Despite being announced in 2020, work on Mass Effect 5seemed to never progress as far as many fans might initially assume. Up until 2024, BioWare was primarily focused on Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which was a commercial flop for the studio. Only after the latest Dragon Age title was released did BioWare fully shift to working on Mass Effect 5. Still, over the past two years, BioWare says it was only still “early” in the development process on the game.
This lengthy development cycle, when combined with BioWare’s recent failures with Anthemand Dragon Age: The Veilguard, are almost certainly the biggest reasons behind BioWare’s closure and the cancellation of Mass Effect 5. With Electronic Arts as a whole recently having been bought out, those now in charge of the company have undoubtedly spent the past few months evaluating where and how money is being spent at its various studios. Without a recent win to its name, this certainly left BioWare prone to closure.
Moving forward, it will be intriguing to see if Electronic Arts ends up doing anything new with the Mass Effect IP. While the next mainline entry in the series is no longer happening, Mass Effect as a whole remains incredibly popular and is arguably one of the more valuable and unique franchises that EA owns. As a result, it could look to do something completely different with the sci-fi property down the road, although the potential for such a project likely wouldn’t arrive for many, many more years.
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