{"id":95594,"date":"2026-10-26T03:57:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T19:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=95594"},"modified":"2026-10-26T03:57:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T19:57:59","slug":"mass-effect-leaks-reveal-canceled-bioware-games-story-would-have-accounted-for-previous-game-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=95594","title":{"rendered":"Mass Effect Leaks Reveal Canceled BioWare Game&#8217;s Story Would Have Accounted for Previous Game Choices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Additional details about BioWare&#8217;s <u>canceled Mass Effect game<\/u> have leaked online, revealing a story that would have taken choices from the Commander Shepard trilogy into account if EA hadn&#8217;t shut down the studio.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The long-awaited and currently canned follow-up for the sci-fi RPG franchise, which was working under the title Mass Effect: Universe, was built around decisions made in the original games, according to comments shared by former technical director Romain Toutain during a recent livestream (via <u>Kotaku<\/u>). As more details about the project leak, there&#8217;s no telling exactly how thorough this system would have been, but he did his best to give fans an idea.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;All the choices made in the first Mass Effect games were taken into account,&#8221; Toutain said (translation via Bluesky user <u>@loustica-lucia.bsky.social<\/u>). &#8220;One of the reasons why it was called &#8216;Mass Effect: Universe&#8217; is that you had so many choices. That you could plug your saves together to create parallel universes, to keep it simple. It&#8217;s not exactly how it worked. You had different timelines, basically.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Every IGN Mass Effect Review<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"Take a look at our verdicts for all of the previous Mass Effect games, dating back to the series' debut in 2007.\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2277167929 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Mass Effect fans know how crucial the series&#8217; overarching story is, especially when it comes to Commander Shepard&#8217;s first three installments in his\/her fight against the Reapers. Outside of the <u>ill-fated Andromeda<\/u> follow-up that launched in 2017, players were able to carry major choices from each entry over to the next, resulting in a trilogy of games with a highly personalized story.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Relationships, major character deaths, and even the fate of an entire species are just a few of the ways Shepard can be steered to shape the galaxy, and although <u>whether it was all worth it in the end<\/u> is still up for debate, it seems Mass Effect: Universe would have <u>offered an opportunity to right some wrongs<\/u>. Toutain said they had plans for those who just prefer to experiment with the story and its many, many branches, too. He likened the freedom to &#8220;generate timelines&#8221; to Spike Chunsoft&#8217;s 2016 video game, <u>Zero Time Dilemma<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;You have no f**king idea just how great it was,&#8221; he continued. Then, responding to a fan asking whether Mass Effect: Universe would have featured systems similar to what was found in Dragon Age: Inquisition and the series&#8217; lore-tailoring Keep application, he said, &#8220;kinda, yeah.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span data-cy=\"poll-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"\/><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;It&#8217;s more like, you can make decisions that might contradict things you&#8217;ve already done or thing you have to do, and so it would create plot &#8216;points&#8217; in the timeline. I mean, that was the theory. It worked, in practice. I&#8217;ll tell you about the tech one day because it was really exciting.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">&#8220;We got worked up, f**k. Everything in the game. Everything was stateful, and at any time, you could stop the game \u2013 I mean you could pause it \u2013 and ask a system that solved logical equations, &#8216;Is this valid?&#8217; And if it isn&#8217;t valid, what conditions must be met for it to be valid?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The ideas Toutain teased sound ambitious and complex, and unfortunately, they will likely never see the light of day. EA announced last week that it had <u>shuttered the long-running RPG developer and canceled what would likely have been called Mass Effect: Universe<\/u>, with additional plans for the franchise&#8217;s future in games on hold, too. Fans have already erected a <u>#SaveMassEffect movement<\/u> in the aftermath, with <u>a petition garnering<\/u> an unreal 185,000 signatures at the time of this story&#8217;s publication.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">11 Mass Effect Characters and Moments the TV Show Needs to Be a Hit<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"It\u2019s official: A Mass Effect show is in the works at Amazon\u2019s Prime Video. Although it hasn\u2019t been said outright, the show will most likely be an adaptation of Commander Shepard\u2019s story from the original trilogy due to that saga\u2019s popularity with fans. A television series is the most appropriate format for adapting the award-winning game franchise into another medium, opposed to say a feature film, since Mass Effect is an extension of many of the space opera narrative conventions popularized by perennial sci-fi TV juggernaut Star Trek, and also because the many episodes\/seasons a TV show affords will allow the creators to use far more of the series\u2019 wide array of fan-favorite characters.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;&#10;&#10;The characters are why Mass Effect fans love the series so much and what will help the franchise connect with a new audience. Now that we know we\u2019re getting a show, let\u2019s take a look at the Mass Effect trilogy\u2019s best characters and moments that the show should adapt. (And obviously we're not including main character Commander Shepard on this list as their inclusion goes without saying!)&#10;\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2277167929 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Other highlights from Toutain&#8217;s stream include the revelation that the Reaper-like hand featured in recently leaked footage was named Billy, as well as the idea that the developers were hoping to craft a story that gave each player a completely unique experience. More information about what Mass Effect 5 would have been have also leaked in the days after BioWare&#8217;s demise. Those details include <u>a full trailer<\/u>, as well as <u>gameplay details that promised missions with &#8220;Hitman-style freedom.&#8221;<\/u> The Prime Video show, meanwhile, is said to still be in the works.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"author-sign-off\"><\/p>\n<section class=\"author-sign-off\" data-cy=\"author-sign-off\"><span class=\"stack jsx-59817748 jsx-1927875859\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"rounded jsx-444076027 jsx-1730475047 profile-thumb jsx-2141281959 aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-1-1\"><img alt=\"Michael Cripe Avatar\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image profile-thumb-img jsx-249361588 jsx-2338608387 expand\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/avatars\/5205bf6a08586a205a834928\/Michael_blue_red_2-1700460435246.png?crop=1%3A1&amp;width=56&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=80 1x, https:\/\/assets-prd.ignimgs.com\/avatars\/5205bf6a08586a205a834928\/Michael_blue_red_2-1700460435246.png?crop=1%3A1&amp;width=56&amp;dpr=2&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;quality=80 2x\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"stack jsx-2509706801 jsx-3630940851\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"interface jsx-1132626198 sign-off-text\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He&#8217;s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/section>\n<p><\/output><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/mass-effect-leaks-reveal-canceled-bioware-games-story-would-have-accounted-for-all-choices-from-previous-games\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><br \/>\n<center><script>\n  atOptions = {\n    'key' : 'ab8cc34fbebd96e6c135978b4baca540',\n    'format' : 'iframe',\n    'height' : 90,\n    'width' : 728,\n    'params' : {}\n  };\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highrevenueformat.com\/ab8cc34fbebd96e6c135978b4baca540\/invoke.js\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Additional details about BioWare&#8217;s canceled Mass Effect game have leaked online, revealing a story that would have taken choices from the Commander Shepard trilogy into&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","wpcat-32-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}