We obviously know a little more about the release window for Mass Effect 5. We prefer to warn you, you won’t have to be in a hurry. For some players, this isn’t surprising.
The Mass Effect license is preparing its return with its highly anticipated fifth opus. However, we have almost no news from him. BioWare is prioritizing Dragon Age Dreadwolf, and this is greatly delaying its release. This did not prevent the studio from revealing a first teaser recently, which set the community on fire. Does that mean it will arrive sooner than expected? Well, we got some information about that. And unfortunately, that doesn’t bode well.
Mass Effect 5 will be released… one day
These new images of the next game in the franchise were clearly a pleasure to see. It was a nice way to celebrate N7 Day, which is a sort of homage to the game series. Incidentally, the teaser raised the question of the release window for this Mass Effect 5. Do we have the slightest idea when it will arrive among us? For the very informed Jeff Grub, you shouldn’t set your hopes too high. To make us understand his point of view, he simply made a comparison. The message is quite clear: we will have to be patient.
Our man takes us back to 2018, when Dragon Age 4 was revealed. Today, he is still not with us, and the rumor points to a potential release for next summer. That’s a total of six years of waiting, if it ends up arriving in 2024. Grubb then invites us to do the same calculation for Mass Effect 5 which has finally received a first teaser. A “real” sign of life. According to him, we should not hope to see it before 2029. For some fans, it is a wait that may seem unbearable. However, it is not so devoid of logic.
Let us remember, however, that we are not even sure that Dreadwolf will be released for the summer of 2024. In addition, several members of the team working on Mass Effect 5 would have been sent to the rescue on the construction site of the fourth opus. If we also add the wave of layoffs, we see that it is quite normal that we have no news from the two titles. In short, we are not ready to touch the successor to Andromeda, and obviously, the fans are starting to accept it.
A dark day for the license?
There is something else that may explain the delay behind the release of these games. BioWare has indeed made some rather radical decisions in the year 2023. The studio recently fired nearly 50 employees, and that includes veterans who had been working on landmark franchises like Mass Effect for more than twenty years. In addition, seven of them decided to take the firm to court for severance pay that does not reflect their years of seniority. It’s a process that takes time, especially since the company has angered fans.
Indeed, former employees spoke out via a press release to talk about their situation. And obviously, BioWare seems to categorically refuse to find a common agreement. This did not please the community who supported the licensees using the hashtag #N7SeveranceDay specific to Mass Effect. Certainly, on the same day, we had the teaser for 5, which can be confusing. However, it’s hard not to factor all of these setbacks into the equation.