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Ashely currently works as a news writer for Polygon. After getting her Translation degree, she was hired as a guide and news writer for GameRant and TheGamer. She enjoyed working as an author for these sites for six years, and in 2026, she started at Polygon, where she is able to continue to do what she loves: writing about video games.
An award-winning sci-fi author was part of the next Mass Effect game
Mass Effect 5 writers reveal story plans after game canceled
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The fifth installment in BioWare's Mass Effect series was announced six years ago. But the game was still in early development by a small team, and we never got to know much about the game, including who was hired to work on it.
With BioWare officially shutting down, several employees have come out of the woodwork to reveal their roles in the now-canceled Mass Effect game. That includes Derek Künsken, author of the award-winning sci-fi novel The Quantum Magician. In the wake of the game's cancellation and BioWare's announced closure, Künsken revealed he's spent the past five years working on Mass Effect 5.
Mass Effect 5 writers reveal themselves
Künsken said that he worked closely with BioWare creative director Parrish Ley and narrative director Mary DeMarle on the now-canceled Mass Effect sequel. Alongside Catherynne Valente, who had already written a tie-in book for the series, Mass Effect Andromeda: Annihilation, he was tasked with pitching ideas for the story, characters, lore, and sci-fi elements.
On social media, Valente and Künsken expressed sadness and pride in what they were able to accomplish at BioWare. "We were working on a great game," Valente said in response to a post about BioWare's closure. It appears that BioWare had a great team of writers lined up for Mass Effect 5 and wanted to provide the narrative masterpiece that is on par with the original trilogy.
Both writers stated that right now they don't know how much they can reveal about what they were working on. In the future, they hope to be able to let us in on some details about the game that could've been. This may be painful for fans, as we know the game will never see the light of day, but at least it could feed us information that can be used to fuel new Mass Effect theories.
One project that will continue after the death of Mass Effect? The television show based on the nearly 20-year-old franchise.