Let’s Not Get Too Excited About Mass Effect 4 Just Yet

Last month during the 2020 Geoff Keighley Awards – or The Game Awards as they’re also referred to as by some – a teaser was shown for some sort of new Mass Effect project. After a few spanning shots of space, the footage shows everyone’s favorite Asari, Liara, recovering a piece of Shepard’s infamous N7 armor on an icy planet. While the trailer didn’t come right out and say that it was Mass Effect 4, it was heavily implied that the continuation of the original Mass Effect trilogy is coming. Since that unveiling, the footage has become a bit of an afterthought within the mainstream gaming media, but speculation has been rampant within the Mass Effect community. Who will you play as? When will it come out? Which ending will be considered cannon?

Stop.

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear so that we are all on the same page: There is no Mass Effect 4. If Bioware had something like a new Mass Effect game in development, do you think that studio head, Casey Hudson, would have left the company for a second time just days before this trailer was released? No. Instead, let’s look at the more likely situation. You’re Bioware. You’re still cleaning up the mess that you made with Anthem. The Dragon-Age sequel that you announced too early is suffering from delays and a frustrated fanbase. How do you save face and score some good press—even if it’s going to be short lived? You throw out a Mass Effect trailer and hope that it distracts everyone.

Usually, something like that might have worked. But Bioware isn’t Bioware anymore. The Doctors are long gone. These aren’t the same people that brought us Knights of the Old Republic or the original Mass Effect games. With the recent track record that they have, Bioware doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt that someone like a Naughty Dog or Santa Monica Studios might get. Hudson was one of Mass Effect’s strongest advocates. He re-joined Bioware after Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem’s disastrous launches and there was a genuine excitement within the community that Casey could bring the magic back. Him leaving for a second time is a big red flag.

The part that I find most confusing is why Bioware felt the need to put something like that out at all. The mere mention of the new Dragon-Age is greeted with an eye roll by most people because of how prematurely Bioware announced it. They haven’t been able to provide anything else in the years since other than a, “Hey, yeah, it’s still coming…we think.” And now that’s going to be the case with a Mass Effect sequel. With each E3, GDC, and PAX that comes along (if Covid allows it) people are going to go into it hoping to see Mass Effect 4 and they’re going to come out of it disappointed that there was no mention of Mass Effect 4.  

And it was unnecessary. The only thing that fans have been wanting for the last seven years is a remastered Mass Effect trilogy. This spring, they are finally getting that. That was a big thing in itself. Simply showing off footage of that during the 2020 Keighley’s would have been enough.   

Spare yourself the disappointment. For as much as I want a new (good) Mass Effect game, I’m not getting my hopes up. My suggestion is to dismiss that trailer as nothing more than a PR stunt and hope that the remastered Mass Effect trilogy sells well enough to make Bioware and Electronic Arts really get behind the idea of a new Mass Effect title.   

If we can take away anything positive from the bummer that was Mass Effect Andromeda it’s that it’s good to read the room before you get too excited. Wasn’t it weird that Mass Effect Andromeda wasn’t being showcased more before launch? Why were we seeing the same things over and over? Why was there no gameplay footage or hands on impressions anywhere? Then it finally released and we were all able to immediately answer all of those questions.  “Ooooooh! It’s bad.”

Let us learn from recent history and not let our love of space operas, intergalactic diplomacy, and human-on-Hanar sexual romances set us up for disappointment.