A trailer for BioWare's next Mass Effect game has leaked online, arriving at a moment when the chance of the project ever reaching players has largely disappeared. The reason is EA's decision to close the studio.
The video appeared on Reddit, posted from a burner account by a user who claimed to be an EA employee. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier separately vouched for it in a Bluesky post, confirming that the footage is authentic.
The clip begins with a notice explaining that it was assembled from in-game footage using pre-production assets. It then shows a man in an N7 trench coat, who appears to be the game's new protagonist, walking into a bar. An asari approaches and starts a conversation with him.
He describes his time in the military and says he has since taken up a "new line of work." Over his words, the trailer plays scenes of punching, shooting and kissing, the kind of galaxy-saving action that longtime fans of the series will recognize.
The mood shifts when the asari threatens him. Liara T'Soni, an asari who allied with Commander Shepard in the original trilogy, then steps in and reveals herself, and a brawl erupts across the bar. The trailer closes on the title: Mass Effect: Universe.
The last new entry BioWare released in the franchise was Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017, a follow-up to Mass Effect 3. Fans widely panned it, and it was reportedly the result of a troubled development process.
BioWare first signaled in 2020 that it was working on more Mass Effect, while it was still building its next Dragon Age game. Work on the project continued in the years that followed. That period included the 2021 release of Mass Effect Legendary Edition, a remastered version of the original trilogy, as well as studio layoffs both before and after the launch of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
EA has said it will not continue development now that BioWare is closing. That makes the leaked trailer, in all likelihood, the only look the public will get at the game.
