EA: "I see no reason why we shouldn't come back to Mass Effect"
Soderlund offers hope alongside confirmation series is shelved.
EA executive Patrick Soderlund sees no reason why Mass Effect shouldn't be revisited in the future, but said if it was, it would have to be in a fresh, exciting and relevant way.
"I've seen people saying 'Oh EA's not making another Mass Effect,'" Soderlund told Gamereactor at Gamescom. "I see no reason why we shouldn't come back to Mass Effect. Why not? It's a spectacular universe, it's a loved [series], it has a big fanbase, and it's a game that has done a lot for EA and for BioWare.
"What we need to be careful of, though, is whenever we bring Mass Effect back again, we have to make sure that we bring it back in a really [relevant] way, and in a fresh, exciting place. That's my job, and that's Casey's [Hudson] job, and BioWare and the Mass Effect team's job, to figure out what that looks like, and that we don't know yet, but we will."
His comments do two things: one, they offer an obvious glimmer of hope following the disappointing release of Mass Effect Andromeda, which resulted in the Mass Effect series being put on ice, studio BioWare Montreal being repurposed as EA Motive, and perhaps an earlier than expected end to additional Mass Effect Andromeda story content.
On the flipside the comments also suggest EA has indeed shelved the Mass Effect series for the foreseeable future - the assumption having previously been based on a Kotaku report.
Regardless, BioWare currently has no time for a new Mass Effect game - certainly not now BioWare Montreal, the studio that would have presumably developed it, has disappeared.
Of prime concern to BioWare now is Anthem, a colossal Destiny-sized-and-themed bet on multiplayer science-fiction adventure, with a 10-year plan. It will need all hands on deck across both BioWare HQ in Edmonton, and BioWare in Austin, to finish the game for next autumn. That's on top of ongoing Star Wars: The Old Republic development, and on top of what sounds like pre-production of Dragon Age 4.