While it's no secret that a new entry in the Mass Effect franchise is brewing in BioWare's studio, it's not going to be called Mass Effect 4; and BioWare doesn't want it to be labeled as such.
In a post on the official BioWare forums, community manager Chris Priestly wrote that calling the next Mass Effect game ME4 is a "disservice" since it implies that it will connect with Commander Shepard's tale at some point.
To call the next game Mass Effect 4 or ME4 is doing it a disservice and seems to cause a lot of confusion here. We have already said that the Commander Shepard trilogy is over and that the next game will not feature him/her. That is the only detail you have on the game. I see people saying "well, they'll have to pick a canon ending". No, because the game does not have to come after. Or before. Or off to the side. Or with characters you know. Or yaddayaddayadda. Wherever, whenever, whoever, etc will all be revealed years down the road when we actually start talking about it.
I do not call the game ME4 when I talk about it ever, bucause that makes people think of it more as "what happens after Mass Effect 3" rather than "what game happens next set in the Mass Effect Universe", which is far more accurate at this point. Obviously fans are going to speculate content, character and story until we actually reveal details in the years or months to come as you have almost no actual details, just don't get bogged down in "well how are they going to continue ME3…".
BioWare Montreal boss Yanick Roy also went on the official forums to chime in and speak out on the on-going confusion regarding the next game in the series and Mass Effect 4.
What Chris is saying is that thinking of the next Mass Effect game as Mass Effect 4 would imply a certain linearity, a straight evolution of the gameplay and story of the first three games. But because we are switching to a new engine and need to rebuild a bunch of game systems, we have an opportunity to rethink how we want these systems to be going forward instead of just inheriting them from the previous games. Story-wise, the arc of the first trilogy has also been concluded, and what we will do is tell a new story set in the Mass Effect universe. That doesn’t mean that events of the first three games and the choices you made won’t get recognized, but they likely won’t be what this new story will focus on.
In other words, because the game takes place before of after the first trilogy does not mean it necessarily is a straight prequel or sequel.
However, Roy states that we can "safely expect" Mass Effect's alien races, technology, lore, history to be in the next game in the franchise.
So, for now, all we know about the next game in the sci-fi RPG series is that it won't be called "Mass Effect 4," won't star Commander Shepard, will be built using Frostbite 2, and that BioWare Montreal is the team doing development duties.
If you want more info regarding the next Mass Effect game, you'll be happy to know that Roy claims that info won't be disclosed "for several more months," which might mean that a new Mass Effect game might be unveiled at E3, just in time for the next-gen consoles' announcements.
Should BioWare still call the next Mass Effect game Mass Effect 4 or will it benefit them if they went the other way to make sure people won't see it as a continuance of Commander Shepard's story?
Thanks, Eurogamer
