"Mass Effect Is Not Dead," Says BioWare, EA Confirms

[JWB82]

"Mass Effect Is Not Dead," Says BioWare, EA Confirms
By LIANA "LILI" RUPPERT - June 19, 2018

With Anthem being such a big focus and many of the original Mass Effect crew members being pulled from Andromeda to work on the online game, many long-time fans have been worried about the future of such an iconic franchise. When the DLC plans were shelved indefinitely for the latest in the space franchise, those worries continued to grow insurmountably. Luckily, Lead Producer Mike Gamble reassures fans that there is no way they've given up on Mass Effect in addition to my own interview with a source at EA confirming the producer's statement.

Gamble recently told EuroGamer, "It's key to be very clear what this game is," Gamble told the site regarding Anthem. "It is not a single-player corridor shooter, it's not a Mass Effect game, it's not a Dragon Age game, as much as those IPs are special to us. As much as we have various projects in the works and there's a team working on Dragon Age stuff right now, and Mass Effect is certainly not dead, Anthem is different and we have to highlight those differences, of which co-operative play is a big difference."

This also backs up what Casey Hudson has said in the recent past about returning to the series once more when the fast amount of work for Anthem is tampered down. During E3 2018, I recently got a chance to chat with a key member of EA and we talked about their new Star Wars game recently announced ("So many lightsabers, who doesn't want lightsabers!?"). Me being the Mass Effect fangirl that I am, of course I couldn't just let that question go unasked about the future of the franchise.

"Oh, no. Mass Effect is definitely still happening," my source told me. "That franchise is much too valuable to EA for them not to do anything with it." Which, let me be real - was very exciting to hear.

Though the recent dialogue has opened up a bit more about the series' future, we still don't have anything more concrete at this time. Still - the hope is alive and we'll be taking to the stars once more at some point down the line.

Interested in learning more about Anthem? Check out our hands-on impressions of the game right here.

http://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/06/19/mass-effect-is-not-dead-says-bioware-ea-confirms/

 

[ChrisDaViking]

While I'll admit I can't say I was 100% confident that Mass Effect wasn't dead, I was pretty damn confident that it wasn't. It is too big and too popular of a franchise to let go because of one failed (yet still fairly successful) game.

I've already said on this board that although Andromeda wasn't perfect, I still generally enjoyed the game and felt it took more heat than it deserved. BioWare keeps talking at the beginning of each new game they make about what they learned from the last game and then they keep stumbling anyway. I hope they really do start to learn some lessons. Although it is easy to blame EA for a lot of these things, BioWare can't be let off the hook for it all either.

I know I will take some heat for this, but I'm actually glad that Casey Hudson is back at BioWare. He gets a lot of flack over issues at the studio and the ME3 ending, but he was involved in the entire Trilogy, so if he gets criticism for the bad things, then he deserves some credit for the things that were good too. He has said that Mass Effect is something important and dear to him and he and others at BioWare were saddened by the outcome of Andromeda and it seems like he very much looks forward to correcting that. I look forward to him having that chance.

 

[JWB82]

Well, I think the heat for Andromeda can be put on EA. Apparently from what I've heard Bioware wanted to postpone Andromeda a few more months but EA said no, because they didn't want it releasing too close to Battlefront 2 and risk cutting into their profits for it. Which we all know how that worked out for them. Lol!

 

[ChrisDaViking]

Casey Hudson recently put out a Blog post stating among other things, that BioWare has heard desires for future Dragon Age and Mass Effect games and they have some people in the background working on some "Secret Projects" but, they're not ready to get into them just yet.

The Dragon Age stuff is not really a surprise, as there's been rumors of the next DA for a while and it's been almost 4 years since it was released, so a new DA game seems expected. The Mass Effect news is a little more interesting. I'm not shocked that they are gonna do more Mass Effect, we've already discussed the Franchise not being dead, but the fact that they may already be working on something is interesting.

One thing I hesitate to wonder about, but can't help but wonder is IF they may be FINALLY be working on a Trilogy Remaster?

Although it seemed to be dead in the water not long ago and EA said they weren't interested in doing Remasters and easy cash grabs (Which as the company that has been under constant fire for micro transactions is hilarious, but I digress) with the stumbles of MEA, there's a chance that EA and BioWare may be more willing to do something to appease their fans and give them something that they have been clamoring for.

Also, EA releases a Burnout Paradise Remaster, so clearly they have softened their stance on remasters, so maybe, just maybe there is some renewed hope for Shepard and the gang to make their long awaited appearance on this Gen of consoles.

Or maybe they are starting to think about what they will do already with the next full blown game? I'm sure we won't know for a while, but it won't keep me from racking my brain over it.