Bioware is full steam ahead working on their next Dragon Age game, titled Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, but that’s not stopping them from continuing to tease the future of Mass Effect a little bit. The developer has been stringing fans along since the existence of a new Mass Effect title was revealed at 2020’s Geoff Keighley hosted, The Game Awards, but now, nearly two years later we keep hearing about the game but don’t learn anything new of substance. Bioware has been under siege in recent years after the failings of 2017’s Mass Effect Andromeda, and then the biggest blow the studio has faced in 2019’s critical, and commercial failure – Anthem. Now they’re resurfacing to reassure fans of one critical facet of the upcoming space-set release.
As Bioware has trended towards live-service titles with their work on both Star Wars: The Old Republic, and then Anthem, concerns had been raised about the future of their single-player, bread-and-butter titles. Reports suggest that for a time, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf was intended to be a live-service game, before Bioware wrestled back the idea from their publisher EA, and it seems as though whatever lessons were learned through that process are also being applied to Mass Effect, because the developer has eased hearts and minds, Mass Effect, when it returns, will be a single player experience.
While work continues on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, Mass Effect‘s next chapter seemingly lives in pre-production. In an update for the Dreadwolf, Bioware has shared a small nugget of insight into how the game is tracking, and simultaneously confirms the good, single-player news. BioWare General Manager Gary McKay says that their team is “hard at work envisioning what the future holds for a new single-player Mass Effect game.” The comments hardly instill hope that we’ll be playing the game inside of the next five years at least, however, the comments do give us hope that the game will be of a nature that fans want and expect of a Mass Effect game.
As of the time of this news coming out, we’re already less than a fortnight away from N7 Day, a notable day on the calendar for all who love Mass Effect. November 7 is often a day of celebration and sharing insights into the franchise’s past, present, and future of the IP. It might be the time where players stand to learn a little bit more about the cast, the tim period that the new game will be set in, the fate of Commander Shepard, and more.
We may have to wait a long time yet for Mass Effect, but we can sit in hope that the wait will be worth it. Mass Effect‘s release window is yet to be revealed.
