The next chapter in the multi-million selling Mass Effect franchise is unlikely to adhere to the template established by fellow BioWare stable mate, Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Speculation that the game would do so was drummed up by Giant Bomb following comments from BioWare representatives. However, this could have applied to a myriad of aspects, from game world creation, quest structure, design concepts, and more, none of which were made clear.
In light of this, Aaryn Flynn, the General Manager of BioWare Edmonton and Montreal, has taken to NeoGAF (via GameSpot) to downplay the rumors and set the record straight, but said he has "a good idea where [the speculation is] coming from."
"All of our games are using Frostbite now. We’ve said the next Mass Effect uses some of the technology from Dragon Age: Inquisition. We’ve been enjoying building larger areas that you can explore with less friction, so that’ll be there as well."
"Take the Mako, something we’ve already shown in prototype form. We had that in ME1, and bringing it back is more related to a feeling that we can do it much better than we did before and fulfil the original promise of that gameplay. That has nothing to do with DAI. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that dropping the older consoles has had more impact on the overall gameplay goals of the next Mass Effect game than what DAI successfully accomplished.
We’re very proud of what DAI has achieved, but that does not set a ‘template’ for what every other game we make needs to be. Each game franchise needs to innovate and improve their experience based on what’s best for it, not just what another game had success with because ‘well that was successful’."
Mass Effect 4 has been in development for some time now, and will presumably release for PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One. No release date has been set, but rumors point to a 2016 launch.
BioWare has confirmed the return of the Mako but won’t reveal if the game will be a prequel or sequel to the original trilogy.