Summary
- Mass Effect 5 is still happening, assures the game director.
- He reaffirms that the game is currently in pre-production.
- This comes after restructuring at BioWare saw many developers lose their jobs.
The past few days have been devastating for many BioWare fans. After Dragon Age: The Veilguard reached 1.5 million players – 50 percent fewer than EA was hoping for – a huge restructuring of BioWare was rolled out, seeing multiple key developers moved to other studios or laid off. In fact, there are no longer any writers from any previous Dragon Age game at the company now.
With Dragon Age almost definitely on ice, Mass Effect 5 is next, but fans have very little to feel optimistic about. It’s enough for some to feel that, despite a recent statement from the studio, the game will never see the light of day. Now, Mass Effect 5 director Michael Gamble is having to assure fans that the game really is happening, it’s just in the early stages of development.
Mass Effect 5 Is Still In Pre-Production
The long-awaited sequel isn’t ready for a full team just yet
With Mass Effect 5 in pre-production, this means it’s only in the second stage of development. Once this stage is over, the team can move over to full production, which is when we’ll hopefully see a larger team brought on board to get the game ready. Then, there will be testing and pre-launch phases before the game is ready to be with us.
In other words, we’re probably still a long way off from seeing much of Mass Effect 5, especially now that so many people have been removed from BioWare. Worse still, it’s being reported that those who were moved to other EA studios have now been moved permanently, whereas this was originally supposed to be a temporary arrangement.
BioWare veteran Mark Darrah, who is no longer with the company, recently gave us some insight into why it takes the studio so much longer to launch games now. Essentially, the cracks in the well-oiled machine started to show around Dragon Age: Inquisition, as the project became so large that it pulled devs away from Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem. This continued with future games, until BioWare could eventually only work on one at a time, meaning there’s nothing for the devs who have just finished a game to jump onto right away.
It remains to be seen when Mass Effect 5 will be with us. Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s development has wrapped up now.
BioWare
- Date Founded
-
February 1, 1995
- CEO
-
Ray Muzyka
- Headquarters
-
Edmonton, Canada