There was a time when Bioware wasn’t just a great video game developer; they were easily one of the best developers in the gaming industry. Whether it was because of their RPG set in a galaxy far, far away or their original IPs that helped showcase their mastery of the genre, fans loved everything they made. Then, after a certain trilogy of theirs ended, things slowly started to go off the rails, and the company has seen everything from key departures to massive layoffs. Fast forward to now, Mass Effect 5 has been promised for years, and yet we still don’t know when exactly it’ll come out or if it’ll come out in any good quality.
That might sound mean to say, but when you think about the last entry in the franchise, how that was received, and the live-service title that came out after that, which bombed heavily, it’s fair to note. To that end, even though we got a small teaser for Mass Effect 5 last year, Bioware has still been mum on things, and only small tidbits of information have been provided since.
Case in point: Mike Gamble, one of the heads of the upcoming project, was asked on Twitter about the team members who would be part of the project. To that end, he replied that those who worked on the original trilogy would be leads for the fifth title:
On the surface, this seems like a great thing. After all, you want veterans of the craft to help return things to how they once were, right?
The problem is that he didn’t specifically name the people who are in those roles. We know they’re not the people who oversaw the original trilogy; they are merely “vets” from the first three games, and that’s a big difference.
Plus, as both Bioware and companies like Rocksteady can attest to, it doesn’t matter if you have veteran leadership if things aren’t getting done. Or, if the ones above you, in this case, their publishers, aren’t “feeling” what the game is becoming and force them to turn it into something else. For Rocksteady, their game starring the Suicide Squad was no doubt meant to be a continuation of their Batman titles in the ways that mattered. Instead, it got turned into a live-service looter-shooter that was not only poorly received, but the game is barely functional right now!
So, while hearing that people close to the franchise are trying to restore it, it’s too soon to say that the 5th entry will “restore the feeling.”
