Mass Effect 5's trailer leaks, and it highlights the issue that could kill the gaming industry

A trailer for the next Mass Effect game has been leaked by a former developer, following the cancellation of the title and closure of beloved studio BioWare.

“Can confirm that this is a real trailer of the Mass Effect game that BioWare was developing up until its closure yesterday,” wrote respected industry insider Jason Schreier on BlueSky after some questioned the legitimacy of the trailer.

As for why its legitimacy was questioned, well, perhaps that’s because it’s difficult to comprehend that a project this promising for an IP this popular could ever be canned.

The trailer revealed a title, potentially a placeholder, of Mass Effect Universe, featuring what seems to be an almost entirely new line-up of protagonists, albeit part of the N7 crew.

There was one returning face though, Liara T’Soni which, for us fans, only made watching the trailer hurt more.

Our hero was seemingly set to be a former military man, with the N7 crew in pursuit of an asari. An end fight revealed a mixture of melee and biotic combat.

As confirmed in the trailer’s opening, while the footage is in-engine, it is made of pre-production assets and you can never guarantee end-product quality from a cinematic trailer.

Clearly though, this trailer confirms that the team’s intention was to deliver the game fans had been dreaming of for years, which is precisely why it highlights the issue that I worry could one day kill the industry.

AAA studios have never been so risk averse, and yet reliable IPs are being left to die

There’s nothing to be gained by the industry playing it safe. It’s why indies and AAs have thrived in recent years, often going head to head with AAAs for GOTY nods.

That being said, there’s nothing to gain from trend chasing either - and continued trend chasing could be a damning nail in the gaming industry’s coffin.

Being a AAA studio isn’t the armour it once was; with development costs continuing to increase, every project is laced with risk.

That shouldn’t stop AAA studios from developing new IP, but I can understand why so many are trying to balance this out with ‘safer’ projects.

The problem is that the games industry keeps wasting its time on safe projects that precisely no one wants.

The odd remaster or remake is fine, but did a studio as utterly brilliant as Naughty Dog need to dedicate an entire PlayStation console generation to just those two formats? Absolutely not.

But the main villain in the games industry, if you ask me, is the incessant belief that live service is the key to safety and longevity when, for most studios, it’s always resulted in the complete opposite.

Mass Effect is one of many single-player IPs to have live-service forced upon it

Should Rocksteady have pivoted away from the Batman Arkham games to create Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League? No.

Does Horizon Hunters Gathering already feel doomed while Horizon 3 remains a distant dream? Yes.

Did Mass Effect Andromeda consume years of effort that maybe should’ve just been spent developing the franchise’s next mainline entry? If you ask me, yes.

Live service is anything but safe. Concord and Highguard are proof of that.

What really irks me, though, is this insistence of live service being the way forward mixed with a complete and utter disregard for what fans actually want.

I don’t believe in an industry that runs solely on fan service because you eradicate that all important sense of creativity that’s required to keep the industry alive.

But oftentimes, these big-budget studios waste years on projects that as soon as they’re announced are met with endless retorts of “no one asked for this”.

READ MORE: BioWare is gone, but Mass Effect lives on thanks to unexpected development

There’s no need for proven IPs to be viewed as a creative burden

If you’re EA and you’re sitting on an IP as rich as Mass Effect, how do you let almost a decade pass without making use of that IP?

The Mass Effect trilogy is one of the greatest RPG series of all time. I’m quite confident that BioWare could’ve captured that magic again in Mass Effect 5, utilising all the bells and whistles of modern technology.

AAA developers should always pursue what ignites their creativity, even if that means developing something new or something considered a major risk.

In the pursuit of safety though, trend chasing has to stop. It doesn’t exhibit respect to your IP nor does it exhibit respect to players.

An IP like Mass Effect doesn’t emerge without complete and utter creative brilliance. How sad that it can so easily fizzle out of existence when, quite simply, all players wanted was more.