A tiny look at what could have been
Yesterday, only a couple of months after EA went private after having been acquired by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, equity firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's Affinity, it was announced that BioWare are being shut down, with development on their next Mass Effect game cancelled. Now, only a day after this was announced, a trailer that was meant for internal use only has been shared, showing off a rough idea of what the game would be like.
The trailer initially came from a Reddit post by a user without much evidence of its legitimacy, but since then IGN have seemingly been able to verify that it's authentic. Worth noting right away is a message shared at the beginning of the trailer: "The following is in-engine footage from our small team. It uses our pre-production assets." It then goes on to show a former sci-fi military man explaining why he left the war life behind for what looks like a James Bond-esque interplanetary one.
Mass Effect: Universe Trailer
by u/Random_Hyabusa_Ninja in masseffect
While the whole thing is pre-rendered, there is a loose idea of gameplay here, with the usual gun action paired with some fancy telekinetic abilities. At the end of the trailer we even get a name, Mass Effect Universe. No way of knowing if this was just a working title or if this is what would have been revealed whenever the time came to do so. Perhaps the most notable section is the inclusion of an older Liara T'Soni, who helps the protagonist in a bar fight, begging the question of when the game might be set.
Without further leaks, we only really have this trailer and the words of those who were working on it to get any kind of understanding of what it would have been like. BioWare weren't the only ones to be affected by EA's obvious cost-cutting measures either. Devs working on The Sims, Skate and Battlefield also appear to have lost their jobs as part of the 400 staffers that have been laid off. As always, solidarity with all of the concerned workers.