Mass Effect 4 Update Confirms Very Good News

A new update on the next Mass Effect game — tentatively dubbed Mass Effect 4 — has confirmed some very good news. As you may know, the first three Mass Effect games ran on Unreal Engine 3, one of the best engines in game development at the time and a very standard engine. The only Mass Effect game since then, Mass Effect Andromeda, switched to Frostbite, EA’s in-house engine. This switch caused considerable development issues for the BioWare team that made Mass Effect Andromeda, which ended up being well below the standard the trilogy had set, partially thanks to an extensive list of technical issues. That said, a new job listing has confirmed that not only is the next installment in the series not using Frostbite, but that it’s returning to Unreal Engine.  More specifically, the job listing reveals the game is using Unreal Engine 5, the latest and fairly new iteration of Unreal Engine, which is already showing signs of being able to produce tremendous graphical fidelity. 

What does this mean for Mass Effect 4? Well, it should lead to a better product. Frostbite is an engine originally designed for first-person shooters. Not only does it not lend itself well to third-person action shooters, but it’s also simply a harder-to-use engine and an inferior engine to Unreal Engine 5. 

That said, for now, take this update with a grain of salt, as it’s possible the job listing has faulty information, but this seems unlikely. At the moment of publishing, neither BioWare nor EA have commented on this inadvertent update on the game. If this changes, we will update the story accordingly. 

There’s currently no word when the next Mass Effect game will release. In fact, we don’t even know what platforms it’s going to release on. What we do know is that it’s nowhere near release, and when it does finally release, it will likely be via the PC, PS5, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X.

For more coverage on all things Mass Effect — including the latest news, rumors, leaks, and speculation — click here. Meanwhile, and as always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ to talk all things gaming.