Mass Effect: next game “going to be a new thing”

By Brenna Hillier

The next Mass Effect game will be “something fresh and new”, while the team that made the last three games takes a break to develop an all-new IP.

Executive producer Casey Hudson made mention of the series’ new direction during a PAX East panel, as reported by Kotaku.

“We are starting to get ready to develop another Mass Effect game, and it’s going to be a new thing,” he said.

“We want to be able to give fans an opportunity to get back into the world with these things you’ve come to know and love about the Mass Effect experience but start something fresh and new – a new way for you to explore the whole universe in Mass Effect.”

All this talk of “new” suggests change, which traditionally we are all quite averse to, but fans may be relieved to learn that Hudson will stick with the franchise. He’s going to remain headquartered in Edmonton, where the first three Mass Effect games were made, but as we’ve known for sometime, development duties on the next one will shift to BioWare Montreal.

BioWare Edmonton, meanwhile, has something new in the works, which Hudson is collaborating on with Mass Effect series lead designer Preston Watamaniuk.

“We are developing a whole new fictional universe at BioWare for myself and Preston [and other main Mass Effect trilogy creators.] That’s kind of our next thing,” Husdon said.

“We’re focusing on building something new the way we did at the very beginning on Mass Effect.”

What’s ahead for Mass Effect?

Although the trilogy and Commander Shepard’s story have ended and will not be continued, that the Mass Effect series would continue wasn’t a secret. BioWare’s been talking about it since late last year, commenting that it doesn’t just want to rehash Commander Shepard’s story but wants to be respectful of previous entries, and commenting in November that the new game was in the early design stages.

It will be built on Frostbite 2, and while it’s not clear if the game will be a prequel or sequel, some player choices may carry over.

BioWare recently release the last piece of single-player DLC for Mass Effect 3, Citadel, as well as the final multiplayer content drop; it supported the multiplayer side for a whole year before moving on.

At PAX East, BioWare also presented a series retrospective and released an ME3 infographic.