BioWare has been quietly working on a new Mass Effect game for quite some time now. While no details about the project have been revealed so far, former Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 cinematic designer Armando Troisi believes that the team will make a great game as long as it doesn’t face interference. In an interview with FRVR, Troisi was asked if he had any advice for the team working on the new Mass Effect.
“It’s hard for me to say because a lot of people that are on that project were there [during the originals]. They know. Preston [Watamaniuk] is there, and Derek [Watts] is there, and Parish [Ley] is there, and they’re the OGs, you know? I don’t think there’s anything that I could tell them that they don’t know what to do.”
The veteran developer went on to speak about how, while BioWare may have lost many of its veteran developers over the last few years, many of the people who made the beloved Mass Effect games are still working at the studio. This, Troisi says, means that the team is still capable of releasing an excellent new game in the franchise, assuming no one interferes with its plans.
“It’s one of those things where, if people get out of the way and let game creators just do their thing, you never know the magic that they can create,” Troisi explained. “I think, obviously, there’s a lot of different things that come into play in making a game of that scale. But trust your people and try to change the world with everything that you try to do. And I think that they can do it. I’m rooting for them.”
“The vision was always clear. There was a BioWare formula, and they were going to iterate on that formula and keep turning out best-in-class cinematic RPGs, and that’s basically what the mandate was. And then they had to live through the live service era—which is still happening but is maybe not as prevalent—and we’re all beholden to companies and stakeholders and all the rest of that.”
“I think BioWare, when they break it down and do that single-player, interactive, narrative-driven, deep combat, progression-driven game. Really, there’s nobody that can touch them. It’s kind of like the [Master] Chief [from Halo]; it’s like going on a walkabout and finding themselves and coming back. I think BioWare can do it if we just leave them alone to do what they do best.”
It is also worth noting that EA recently got acquired by an investment consortium made up of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake, and as such, questions have begun to come up about whether the company will continue to care for single-player games. Former EA executive Emmanuel Rosier isn’t quite optimistic about the fate of Mass Effect due to this, since the company will likely rely on its yearly sports games and live-service IPs to bring in the revenue that would bring it out of the massive debt accrued from its leveraged buyout.
