New Mass Effect Reportedly Still Very Far Away

EA announced over 600 of employees across its various studios were recently laid off. This has led to several game cancellations and even a whole studio shutting down. It seems BioWare has largely been left unscathed, or at least comparatively. There is no word if BioWare staffers were included in this 600 layoffs, but they are not specifically mentioned as being impacted in the same way as other EA studios. In the meantime, we also have small updates on the two games they are working on: the next Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. 

It is being reported that the latter remains BioWare's main focus, presumably in an attempt to get either the game out this year or sometime next year. It's been a long time coming, and according to a new report, most of BioWare is focused on the game. This is good news for Dragon Age fans, but where does it leave the next Mass Effect? Well, it leaves it still in pre-production. 

In the past, we have dove deep into analyzing when the next Mass Effect will release, and this news just reaffirms the case we have previously made, which is that the game is still very far away. It is increasingly obvious the game will stay in pre-production, the non-active part of development, aka the planning part of development, until Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is out or at least until it is very close to out. Where does that ultimately put the game? Probably a little closer to 2030 than you'd like if you are a Mass Effect fan.

Of course, the one benefit of a long pre-production, which this game has had, is concepts, ideas, and visions should be ironed out come development time, which leads to fewer development issues down the line, typically. A lot of art is also made in the pre-production stage, so the game could end up having lots of varied and refined art assets.

Unfortunately, right now, all we have is lots of speculation about the next Mass Effect game, and this is unlikely to change until the game leaves pre-production, and either BioWare begins to reveal more about the game or this information is leaked out. 

H/T, IGN.