EA and BioWare have taken the stage at E3 2014 to announce that they are working on a new Mass Effect title. Unfortunately, that’s all we know.
This may not necessarily be news, as BioWare has not been shy about teasing development on a fourth Mass Effect game since the release of Mass Effect 3 in 2012. They’ve previously confirmed that the new game would be designed for the next-gen consoles, and that it would no longer star former trilogy protagonist, Commander Shepard.
The slight teases at this year’s E3 continue to shed a bit more light on the mystery game. BioWare has claimed that it will take place in an entirely different corner of the Galaxy than Shepard’s trilogy of games, and it will potentially allow players to traverse much larger selections of the cosmos. Obviously, no story or character details, nor potential gameplay mechanics were revealed for the new Mass Effect entry.
The new Mass Effect game is in development at BioWare’s secondary Montreal office. Their founding Edmonton office is at work meanwhile on an entirely new IP for the next-generation consoles and presumably the PC. Brief conceptual ideas were shown that appeared to tease an earthbound, modern setting, but details were pretty well non-existent beyond this handful of out-of-context images.
Unfortunately, this new IP revelation would appear to dash hopes that BioWare is at work on a new entry in the much-loved Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series of RPG’s that they pioneered with the now-shuttered LucasArts back in 2003.
BioWare’s next game, Dragon Age: Inquisition, the third entry in their successful series of fantasy RPG’s, will release on October 7th of this year for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It will feature priority DLC and undisclosed premium content on Xbox platforms, as revealed by Microsoft today during their own E3 press conference.
Stay tuned to Eggplante for news and updates related to BioWare and the Mass Effect series.