A trailer said to be for BioWare’s canceled next Mass Effect game appeared on Reddit on Oct. 22, one day after Electronic Arts said it would close the studio. The leak is a rumor for now. Electronic Arts has not confirmed or denied that the footage is genuine, and RCG has not independently confirmed it.
According to Gematsu, the video was posted by a Reddit “burner account” and opens by describing itself as “in-engine footage using pre-production assets.” It ends on a title card that names the game Mass Effect: Universe, a title that had not been made public before.
The Verge described the trailer as centered on an ex-soldier talking with a mysterious Asari who approaches him at a bar, with a flashback to a fight that looks like a modern take on the original trilogy’s gameplay and a cameo from a prominent character from that trilogy.
Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier said, “this is a real trailer of the Mass Effect game that BioWare was developing up until its closure yesterday,” Gematsu reported. The Verge reported that IGN says it has verified the trailer, and Gematsu noted that a post from The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley seemed to suggest the footage is genuine. Before the video surfaced, an alleged Electronic Arts employee wrote on Reddit that a trailer for the game had been ready for “a few months,” a claim Gematsu said IGN corroborated.
The next Mass Effect was first announced in November 2020, with a teaser at The Game Awards that December. On Oct. 21, Electronic Arts said it would not move forward with early development of the game and would close BioWare as part of a wider restructuring.
Until Electronic Arts or former BioWare staff speak on the record, the trailer stands as an unconfirmed but widely vouched look at a game that will not be finished.
