Fans are petitioning EA to let someone else work on the next Mass Effect, but a former developer succinctly explains why that won’t ever happen.
Not long after the news broke that EA had cancelled the new Mass Effect, and shuttered developer BioWare in its entirety, a trailer for something called Mass Effect Universe was shared online.
Later confirmed to be legitimate, and created for the next game, it only made fans more upset about the game’s cancellation, while emboldening calls to try and salvage it in some form.
A popular suggestion online is that EA could simply sell Mass Effect to another studio, if it has no interest in making a new game itself, but a former member of BioWare has downplayed that possibility.
Romain Toutain, who served as the Mass Effect franchise’s technical director, recently held a Twitch livestream reacting to the leaked trailer, where he offered some insight into BioWare’s plans for the next game, such as how the trailer was only ever for internal use and was never meant to be shown to the public.
The stream is no longer available to watch (it’s unclear if Toutain took it down himself or if EA forced him too), but this is the internet, so clips remain available on social media.
Want GTA 6 news?
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for the latest GTA 6 news, reviews of new games you should play and exclusive analysis of the biggest stories of the week.
Some clips, handily translated from French into English, have been posted to Bluesky, which include Toutain’s response to a viewer’s question of why EA didn’t consider selling BioWare and Mass Effect Universe.
‘EA never actually sells anything. They just shut things down and sit on the licences,’ Toutain bluntly but accurately answered.
As we wrote last week, EA has spent almost its entire existence buying and shuttering studios while retaining hold of franchises it clearly has no interest in anymore, such as Command & Conquer, Need For Speed, and Medal Of Honor.
EA is relinquishing its rights to the Ultima franchise back to series creator Richard Garrick, but it’s less out of kindness and more because it’s legally required to.
Maybe that will happen with Mass Effect in 35 years time, and its original creators can reclaim it then, but nothing is likely to happen any sooner than that.
According to Toutain, a new mechanic in the game would have let you ‘generate’ different timelines depending on your actions, which would’ve allowed the game to take into account Mass Effect 3’s different endings without contradicting any of them.
Unsurprisingly, there is a fan petition to convince EA to either resume development or licence Mass Effect to another studio, but at only 220,416 signatures at time of writing, you shouldn’t hold your breath about it moving the needle.
Even if EA was motivated to sell it off they’re not going to while it’s still got a deal with Amazon to produce a Mass Effect TV show. If that is a Fallout sized hit then that’s probably the only chance Mass Effect has for a comeback – even though BioWare is going to stay dead regardless.
EA’s future in general looks bleak at the moment, considering the company is in $18 billion of debt after its leveraged buyout, which was no doubt a motivating factor in BioWare’s closure.
In a bit of grim humour, some have noticed that the ‘coming soon’ page on EA’s website is completely blank, giving a new meaning to Toutain’s ‘EA never sells anything’ comment.
EA does currently have plans for a third Star Wars Jedi game, an Iron Man game, and, according to rumours, a new Star Wars: Battlefront, although who’s to say if any of those will actually see the light of day.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.