One of the most anticipated launches of this year was Bioware’s return to their hit sci-fi action RPG franchise Mass Effect after a five year hiatus with Mass Effect Andromeda. Except… when the game launched, it got subjected to vicious criticism from fans and the media, leading in turn to lower than expected sales, and prematurely terminated support for the game, as well as rumors that the series was suspended for the time being.
However, speaking to GameReactor, EA’s Executive Vice President Patrick Söderlund said that there is no reason for EA to not to return to Mass Effect at some point in the future, also pointing out that the game got more criticism than it deserves.
“Well I think, my personal opinion is, I think that the game… I usually don’t do this, but this is one of those places where I feel like the game got criticised a little bit more than it deserved,” Söderlund said. “I think the game is actually a great game. Yes, we have to acknowledge the fact that there were some things that maybe we could have done better, absolutely, but as a whole, if you go in and you buy the game today with everything that’s in it today, I believe that that’s a game worth buying, personally.”
“So that’s the first thing I’ll say. The [second] thing I’ll say is, for Mass Effect as a franchise, that has such a big fanbase, and you know I’ve seen people saying ‘Oh, EA’s not making another Mass Effect’. I see no reason why we shouldn’t come back to Mass Effect. Why not? It’s a spectacular universe, it’s a loved [series], it has a big fanbase, and it’s a game that has done a lot for EA and for BioWare.
“What we need to be careful though of is, whenever we bring Mass Effect back again, we have to make sure that we bring it back in a really [relevant] way, and in a fresh, exciting place. That’s my job, and that’s Casey’s [Hudson] job, and BioWare and the Mass Effect team’s job, to figure out what that looks like, and that we don’t know yet, but we will.”
The return of Casey Hudson to Bioware, his statements emphasizing his desire for another game in the series, and now Söderlund’s remarks seem to indicate that the future of the series may not be as bleak as many might have originally suspected. Hopefully, if there is a new Mass Effect game, it is loved far more by the fans than Andromeda.