Mass Effect 5 may not come to the consoles you're expecting

Despite being one of the most beloved sci-fi RPGs of all time, it’s not always gone swimmingly for BioWare’s Mass Effect series.

When Mass Effect was first released in 2007 it came with high expectations to be one of the best games of its generation. After all, BioWare had already given in to the likes of Baldur’s Gate, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and Dragon Age: Origins. Thankfully for fans as well as the folks at BioWare and EA, Mass Effect did not disappoint with a Metacritic score of 91.

Check out the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition trailer below!

Three years later, we were treated to Mass Effect 2 which improved on its predecessor in almost every way. Then we had the controversial Mass Effect 3 in 2012, an amazing game in its own right but its ending had angered some fans so much that BioWare created a new optional ending just to appease them.

So with all three of the Mass Effect games garnering critical and commercial acclaim, there was an embedded recipe for success and nothing could go wrong when it came to this beloved series, right? Sadly, Mass Effect: Andromeda arrived in 2017 and it launched as a buggy mess which had fans questioning whether BioWare had lost its spark.

Questions of a spark being lost didn't help with the release of the colossal live-service flop that was Anthem in 2019. That being said, I’ve had no desire to ever return to Anthem, so I couldn't comment on its current state, other than it no longer being online, but if you were initially put off by Mass Effect: Andromeda at launch, I can recommend checking it out now as it's in a much better state.

In 2020, BioWare had the golden opportunity to right recent wrongs when Mass Effect 5 was announced at The Game Awards and with its teaser trailer featuring Dr Liara T’Soni discovering the debris of the Normandy ship and it teased that the band is getting back together.

Unfortunately, since that time, other than a brief teaser on N7 Day in 2023, we’ve heard little else about the progress of Mass Effect 5 (assuming that it will carry a number in its name). What’s more, not only has the voice of FemShep, Jennifer Hale stated that she’s not been approached to reprise her role (and so too it seems for the voice of MaleShep, Mark Meer) but there’s a good chance that Mass Effect 5 could skip this current console generation.

This means that if Mass Effect 5 were to skip this generation and is released on PlayStation 6 and the next-gen Xbox, we could be waiting until 2026 for the N7 crew to arrive in the landing dock and that’s if we’re extremely lucky. There may be a chance that Mass Effect 5 could arrive in the next couple of years, but for that to happen, we’ll probably have to receive a sufficient update on its developmental progress in the next 12 months.

That being said, fans can look forward to Dragon Age: The Veilguard at the end of this year, but with its pending arrival, BioWare or EA might not be in a major hurry to push Mass Effect 5 out the door and I’m ok with that.

After the launch mess of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem, Dragon Age: The Veilguard has a golden opportunity to help gain some lost trust of BioWare which will in turn lay the foundations for Mass Effect 5.

As much as I’d love to play Mass Effect 5 right this second, I’d much prefer it to launch in an amazing state and that is worth its weight in gold. For the more immediate, Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be released for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.