Mass Effect devs new AAA rival Exodus locks in April 2027 launch date

Exodus has become a regular fixture of Geoff Keighley’s various showcases throughout the year, with the upcoming sci-fi adventure having appeared at today’s Gamescom Opening Night Live.

Developer Archetype first unveiled the game at The Game Awards in 2023 before returning in 2025 to confirm an early 2027 launch in a brand new trailer.

Well, we now know precisely when Exodus is set to be ours as a launch date of April 7 2027 has been locked in, with the title coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

The launch date was confirmed in a new cinematic gameplay trailer which put the spotlight on one of Exodus’ many recruitable companions, Salt.

Watch Exodus’ brand new trailer below, revealed at Opening Night Live

Salt is destined to be a fan-favourite, surely, and essentially is an octopus in a giant mech. In fact, Salt is a bounty hunter and mercenary, so she’s not to be messed with.

In combat, she specialises in using a long-range sniper, creating ink-like smokescreens, and pulling off evasive manoeuvres.

The trailer also introduced us to Emrys, a member of the celestial Deva species who will support lead character Jun in battle by draining enemies’ power and turning it into protection.

Exodus recently hit an incredible milestone of 500,000 wishlists which isn’t surprising considering the appetite for a game to fill the gaping chasm left behind by the absence of Mass Effect.

If this is the first you’re hearing of Exodus, it’s being developed by former Mass Effect devs, so you should expect something that feels similar to that sci-fi behemoth.

Drew Karpyshyn, for example, is one member of the Exodus team, with his back catalogue including writing duties on both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2.

Uniquely, however, Exodus plays with time dilation which you may have seen in films like Interstellar.

Time will move differently depending on what planet you’re on. A side quest on a different planet for lead character Jun could take a couple of hours, but decades could have passed on their home planet.

That will allow for some really interesting repercussions of Jun’s actions to be explored.

“Every adventure comes with a cost,” Karpyshyn previously told GAMINGbible, adding that time dilation is one of the “unique defining traits of our universe”.

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Jun can be played as male or female and is guided by Matthew McConaughey’s C. C. Orlev in his first video game role.

Set within the 23rd century, Exodus picks up as humanity has set up life 15,000 light years away from Earth having been forced to flee from the planet.

Our lead Jun is a lowly scavenger, albeit one who can tap into celestial abilities, granting him immense power.

He’ll need to use that power if he’s to stop a devastation known as The Rot and the Celestial - the enemy of humanity who, interestingly, were also once human, essentially having set up life in space first.