Writers working on the next entry in the Mass Effect franchise have spoken out on social media following EA’s announcement that BioWare would be closed, ending work on the series.
Electronic Arts announced on Oct. 21 that the BioWare studio would be shut down, cutting 400 jobs and bringing an end to IPs like Mass Effect and Dragon Age as a result.
Following the news, several writers working on Mass Effect 5 took to social media to share their optimism that the work they were putting in would have led to positive results.
Writers Speak Out After Mass Effect 5 Canceled
Among them was sci-fi writer Derek Kunsken, who revealed he had been working with BioWare on and off for the last five years on the next Mass Effect, and that “what we were cooking was really cool.”
Kunsken added he was “ambitiously imaginative” about what the future of BioWare would look like, and that his work alongside Cat Valente “was the most energizing, in-the-zone collaboration I’ve ever had.”
Valente herself also spoke about the situation, addressing a post from a user who said “a game industry that cannot figure out how to make a sequel to the literal best game of all time is a game industry that is fundamentally broken,” replying that the team “did figure it out” and “were working on a great game.”
The Mass Effect series has been silent since the release of 2017’s Andromeda, which fell beneath expectations, but hope was still high for the franchise after the huge success of the original trilogy.
BioWare announced a new Mass Effect title was being worked on in 2020, reportedly set to be a sequel to the original trilogy, rather than a direct follow-up to Andromeda, returning to Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, not EA’s Frostbite engine used for Andromeda.
The news of the cancellation of Mass Effect 5 and the shuttering of BioWare has hit fans hard, with the door being slammed on the franchise, and even if EA were to sell off the IP, the wait for a new entry would be a long, long way off.
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