Skip to main content

Electronic Arts reportedly puts Mass Effect franchise on temporary hiatus

Mass Effect: Andromeda
BioWare
Mass Effect: Andromeda was a sequel nearly five years in the making, and following its mixed critical reception, publisher Electronic Arts has reportedly made the decision to put the science-fiction series on hiatus.

The news comes via Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, who was told by “people familiar with the studio” that the Mass Effect franchise would be put on temporary hold as BioWare Montreal — the primary studio behind Andromeda — would be downsizing. Instead of cutting jobs, EA took the opportunity to relocate some of BioWare Montreal’s staff to EA Motive to assist in work on Star Wars Battlefront II.

Recommended Videos

“The teams in EA Worldwide Studios are packed with talent, and more than ever, we are driving collaboration between studios on key projects,” said studio director Yanick Roy in a statement to Kotaku. “With our BioWare and Motive teams sharing studio space in Montreal, we have BioWare team members joining Motive projects that are underway. We’re ramping up teams on other BioWare projects in development.”

One of these projects is a new intellectual property, but BioWare will presumably also continue work on the Dragon Age series as well. Dragon Age: Inquisition moved the franchise into a more open-world setting in 2014, much like Andromeda did for Mass Effect, but it did so with much greater success. Inquisition would go on to win game-of-the-year awards from a number of outlets.

Mass Effect: Andromeda, meanwhile, launched with a distinct lack of polish. In addition to notoriously rough facial animations, graphical features like shading on characters’ eyes were not implemented until after launch, and the game’s writing was seen by many as a step down compared to the original trilogy. We weren’t too fond of it, calling it “a retread of an old frontier” in our review.

Mass Effect: Andromeda is now available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. You might want to check out the Mass Effect Trilogy set instead, which bundles together all three original games on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Dragon Age: The Veilguard almost has too many customization options
Varric and Harding in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

BioWare is known for its character customization options, so the fact that Dragon Age: The Veilguard will have some isn't noteworthy. However, the extent of those options is staggering, to the point where players can customize a lot of their experience.

In a series of interviews published in Game Informer this week, game director Corinne Busche delved into a ton of the customization options, from the difficulty and gameplay to character gear.

Read more
Next Dragon Age gets a new name ahead of surprise gameplay showcase
A character points a bow and arrow in Dragon Age 4 concept art

 

Not only does the long-awaited fourth Dragon Age game have a new name, but fans can expect to learn way more information about it very soon.

Read more
The next Mass Effect gets a new teaser on N7 Day
A screen grab from the N7 Day 2023 Mass Effect teaser.

 

Update: BioWare still had another surprise up its sleeve for this N7 Day, with multiple countdown timers on its website slowly ending and revealing clips from a new teaser. They now all seem to be out, and the official Mass Effect YouTube channel has posted the full video titled "N7 Day 2023." In it, we see a character walking through a hangar. They then turn around, revealing a jacket with the N7 logo on it, but a helmet obscures their identity. They then take out a gun, walk out toward the alien planet, and the title card saying Mass Effect appears. Mike Gamble tweeted out the video, saying, "look closely." Check out the full video below, followed by the original article.
N7 Day 2023
It's November 7, 2023, which means it's also N7 Day, where EA and BioWare celebrate the Mass Effect series, which has a new game in development. While we didn't get any new art or another trailer this year, a message from Mike Gamble, Mass Effect franchise director and executive producer, does tease story elements for the next mainline Mass Effect game.
Specifically, he heavily teases the new Mass Effect game's connection to the original trilogy by going over many of the questions BioWare has had to ask itself during the game's development. The blog post includes a list of juicy questions that the next game may explore.

Read more