Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
The Mass Effect franchise has a lot of history with the Unreal Engine. The original trilogy were developed with Unreal Engine. The latest mainline entry, Mass Effect: Andromeda made use of Electronic Arts’ Frostbite Engine, but it seems BioWare may be looking to return to the engine it built the franchise with. New job listings suggest the studio is looking for a lead with Unreal Engine experience.
The aforementioned job listing was seen on Electronic Arts’ career website, as recently spotted by VentureBeat. It would appear that Electronic Arts is on the hunt for a new Technical Director who will act as the “most senior engineering lead on the next installment in BioWare’s acclaimed Mass Effect franchise.” That alone is interesting, but even more so is the inclusion of UnrealEngine 4+ as a benefit in candidate consideration. While it’s possible that this is simply due to games and assets of the series developed in the Unreal Engine, it also seems highly possible that this could have implications for the next game.
Announced back at The Game Awards 2020, BioWare and Electronic Arts assured fans that a new Mass Effect game would be happening. We got little more than a short cinematic teaser at that event, suggesting that the game was still very early in development, but it was still something to get fans’ hopes up. Mass Effect Legendary Edition also helped to both remind many players of why they loved the series in the first place and introduce a whole new era of players to the space opera trilogy that captured our hearts. Mass Effect: Andromeda was the sole entry in the series to have ever used the Frostbite Engine, and it produced quite some lukewarm results, failing for many to capture the sci-fi adventure magic that has made the franchise so special to players around the world.
If Mass Effect is indeed moving back towards the Unreal Engine, especially with the advancements being made in Unreal Engine 5, it could make for quite the beautiful new game. Nonetheless, it’s still too early to know for sure what EA and BioWare’s plans are with the next Mass Effect. Stay tuned as we continue to follow this story for further updates and details.