BioWare Finally Gives Update on Mass Effect 4 Release Date

If you were hoping the next Mass Effect game -- tentaively dubbed Mass Effect 4 by many, and Mass Effect 5 by others -- was coming out soon, well you can let go of this hope. A new update on what's going on over at BioWare has been shared, and while it's primarily focused on the studio's most imminent game, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, it does briefly touch upon the new Mass Effect game also in development. 

According to the update -- relayed by Games Beat -- the Mass Effect team is being brought over to help finish the development of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, which has been in post-production since September of last year. The closer the game gets to release, the more production and polishing ramps up, which is why the Mass Effect team is brought in. This is great news for the new Dragon Age game, as it means more resources and polish. It's not great news for the new Mass Effect game though, which has been confirmed to still be in pre-production. In other words, it's still years away from release as it will presumably need at least a couple years in production, and about a year to 18 months in post-production, before it's ready to release.

The entire Mass Effect team isn't moving over to work on the new Dragon Age. A small, core team led by Mike Gamble is being left to work on Mass Effect, but it sounds like the game will not be leaving pre-production until the rest of the team returns, presumably after the launch of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. When will the new Dragon Age release? We don't know. BioWare hasn't provided a date, but the current timelines suggest a 2024 release, likely in the first half of the year.

It becomes increasingly unclear why BioWare revealed the new Mass Effect at the end of 2020 during The Game Awards. By the time it ends up releasing, many years will separate its reveal and release. And that's assuming everything goes to plan. As we've seen with just the tumulotus development of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, things don't always go to plan.