BioWare's cancelled Mass Effect game would've learned from Baldur's Gate 3 and The Witcher to deliver "a level of autonomy and choice that no other game has"

EA has closed its longtime studio partner BioWare, the iconic development house behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age, impacting around 50 staff who were in pre-production on the next Mass Effect game. In the aftermath of EA's decision, one of those affected has shared a little about the project, claiming it would have featured unprecedented levels of player freedom and choice reactivity.

Tony de Waal, a BioWare veteran who has worked on previous Mass Effect and Dragon Age games, offered a rare look behind the scenes at what the team was attempting. In a LinkedIn post (via PC Gamer), de Waal suggested the studio wanted to surpass the acclaimed work of the role-playing giants at Baldur's Gate 3 studio Larian and CD Projekt Red, maker of The Witcher and Cyberpunk.

"I was one of the lucky ones who stayed with BioWare to start on the next Mass Effect, where I believe we were making something special: a level of autonomy and choice that no other game has been able to match," de Waal wrote. "We saw what Larian and CD Projekt were bringing to the table with their latest offerings, and started down a path to bring Mass Effect to the next level while remaining true to the trilogy," he added.

The veteran cinematics lead sadly didn't offer any examples of what that could've looked like in-game, but given previous Mass Effect games have incorporated a great deal of player freedom, the idea of a sequel that builds on that - while incorporating modern techniques from CDPR and Larian - would certainly have been exciting.

"I'm sad you won't ever get to see what we were cooking, and sad for the small, talented group of devs who were all punching above their weight to make something special," de Waal continued. "Please consider those who stayed with BioWare until the very end. They are truly some of the most talented people I've had the pleasure of working with throughout my career."

BioWare's closure feels sudden; it was only a year ago the studio stressed its new Mass Effect game remains in development. At the time, EA's private acquisition had just been announced. The $55bn sale has since been approved, freeing EA to start making cuts many suspected were coming.

More broadly, the move also signals an end to EA's interest in developing deep role-playing games. Outside of its sports and shooter series, EA's non-casual projects are an unannounced Star Wars Jedi sequel, and the Marvel's Iron Man game we've yet to see.