BioWare Lead Developers Reaffirm That the Mass Effect Franchise is Still "Very Much Alive"

After the disastrous release of 2017’sMass Effect Andromeda, many began to worry about what the future would be for BioWare’s space-faring RPG saga. With the prospect ofAnthembeing the studio’s next venture followed by a fourthDragon Agegame, it seemed like it might be quite a long time until BioWare ever got back around to creating aMass Effectgame, if ever. Luckily, BioWare heads Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah have now assuaged those fears in some new comments.

Speaking to Polygon in a new long-form conversation about what has transpired at BioWare over the past few years, Darrah and Hudson spoke candidly aboutMass Effectand its future. In the most basic sense, Darrah and Hudson confirmed thatMass Effectisn’t going anywhere despite the missteps inAndromeda.

“We’re definitely not done withMass Effect," Darrah said. “There’s a lot of stories to be told. We could pull on the threads we put down withAndromeda; we could pull on threads fromMass Effect 3. There’s a lot of interesting space to be explored.”

Hudson, who is BioWare’s general manager, reiterated the same thing aboutMass Effectsaying, “In my mind, it’s very much alive. 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.”

Hudson’s final point though in that statement is likely the only hold up with the potential of a newMass Effectgame. After launchingAnthemat the end of this month on February 22, BioWare will still actively be supporting their newest IP for the long haul with free content updates. Even those that move on to another project afterAnthem’slaunch though will assumedly be working on therecently unveiledDragon Age 4(title still pending) for the foreseeable future. So even if BioWare does want to return toMass Effect, the prospect of doing so in the near future seems unlikely since the studio’s future commitments already seem to pretty much be set in stone.

Still, it’s good to know that there are likely active ideas being discussed for whatMass Effectcould become in the future. Even though we may not see it any time soon, I for one am excited to know that one of my favorite franchises of all-time will potentially return one day.