The cofounders of BioWare, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, have both announced that they are leaving the company. This ground-shaking news spurred BioWare and EA into confirming that the Mass Effect team is working on a new game in that series as well as something new.
“Both Dragon Age and Mass Effect started as single games but grew into vast universes,” general manager of BioWare Edmonton and Montreal Aaryn Flynn wrote in a BioWare blog. “Executive producer [on the Mass Effect series] Casey Hudson and his team are coming off an amazing eight-year run with the Mass Effect trilogy. But they’re not done yet.”
Flynn referenced upcoming Mass Effect 3 downloadable content. That includes new multiplayer items and levels as well as new single-player story content called Omega, which is coming this fall.
“But the Mass Effect universe is vast, and Casey and our teams have plans for another full [Mass Effect] game,” Flynn wrote. He said the team is asking itself: “Where to go next with the sci-fi franchise?” He invited fans to submit their own ideas.
Flynn had more to announce.
“While Casey [Hudson] continues to oversee the development of our new Mass Effect project, he and his leads are putting together their vision for an all-new game set in a fictional universe, built from the bottom-up with all new gaming technology.”
No other details were provided about this mystery game, but it sounds like it could kick off on the next generation of systems that are due out as early as next year.
The doctors are gone, but BioWare still has a lot of games to come. Although some fans may doubt the studio’s capability to execute without Muzyka and Zeschuk.