Bioware says 'we're definitely not done with Mass Effect'

In a studio profile on Polygon, Anthem's executive producer Mike Darrah and general manager Casey Hudson suggest that Bioware still has faith in the Mass Effect series after Andromeda underwhelmed fans in 2017. 

“We’re definitely not done with Mass Effect," says Darrah. "There’s a lot of stories to be told. We could pull on the threads we put down with Andromeda; we could pull on threads from Mass Effect 3. There’s a lot of interesting space to be explored.” 

“In my mind, it’s very much alive,” says Hudson. “I’m thinking all the time about things that I think will be great. It’s just a matter of getting back to it as soon as we can.”

'As soon as we can' might be a while. In addition to launching Anthem and supporting it as a living game, Bioware also appears to be working on a new Dragon Age game.

The report suggests that the Frostbite engine may have been partly responsible for Bioware's Andromeda struggles. RPG systems had to be constructed from scratch to support the kind of story-driven game Bioware is famous for. The studio has since invested in advanced performance capture technology for Anthem. The Andromeda project was also rebooted multiple times, after failed experiments involving procedurally generated planets. The bulk of the game that we played was apparently developed in an 18-month sprint.

Imagine a new Mass Effect game built with new technology and a less fraught production phase. It's one of our favourite series ever, and it deserves another shot.

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.

Latest in Mass Effect
Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale, who played femshep, 'saw no line' before she recorded them for Bioware's flagship trilogy: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
Mark Darrah
BioWare veteran calls out the 'cruelty' of fans celebrating layoffs: 'You are crossing a line, and you're probably attacking the wrong person anyway'
Mass Effect 3 didn't have music like Vigil or Suicide Mission because composer Jack Wall had a spat with Casey Hudson: 'Casey was not particularly happy with me at the end'
Mass Effect Legendary Edition best settings
Bioware's exceptional Mass Effect Legendary Edition is going for a song, so bag 3 of the best action-RPGs ever made for a mere 4 dollars
Mass Effect protagonist in N7 armor on a space background
Amazon's Mass Effect TV show now in 'active development' from the writer of F9: The Fast Saga (the one where a car goes to space)
Commander Shepherd, Garrus, Wrex, Tali, and Liara on the cover of the board game Mass Effect: Priority Hagalaz.
The Mass Effect board game is basically a new sidequest for a 12 year old RPG, but it's sadly lacking in BioWare magic
Latest in News
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021
Storm trooper hero
Another live service shooter is getting shut down, this time before it even launched on Steam