BioWare project leader Michael Gamble has given us a brief update on Mass Effect 5's progress.
Since its reveal in 2020, we've seen very little of the game. Last year's N7 (November 7) day gave us some concept art of a krogan fighting a civil war, presumably on Tuchanka. We've also seen a couple of job listings over the past few months, which is proof that BioWare is actively developing a development team.
The Mass Effect 5 development team is hard at work
When asked why we haven't seen anything since November, Gamble replied, “Just been busy with work, not much time for banter.” Well… there you have it, the studio (heavily depleted by layoffs and restructuring following the release of The Wellguard) is still working on the next generation of Mass Effect, but we shouldn't expect a trailer anytime soon.
Mass Effect 5 is one of those projects that suffers from premature revelations, which we also saw in The Elder Scrolls 6. When a studio announces a game at the beginning of pre-production, the level of expectation among fans of the series begins to rise: “This game has been in development for years, but we haven't seen anything like this,” again is a common question.
This is especially true when a studio is actively working on other projects, as BioWare was with Dragon Age: Velgard and Bethesda was with Starfield. The “first few years” of these projects represent little real progress because it's usually just a skeleton crew playing with concepts and pitching ideas.
So, while Mass Effect 5 was revealed in 2020, solid development on the game likely hadn't started until Dragon Age: The Valeguard shipped in 2024.
We know very little about the upcoming Mass Effect game, other than that it will likely feature Liara T'Soni, who, being a young Asari, is one of the few characters from the original game who can still be alive hundreds of years after the events of the original trilogy.
Every hint we've gotten from Gamble and others suggests that Commander Shepard won't appear in the upcoming game, as their story is over.
