UPDATE: Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has confirmed via BlueSky that the trailer is real.
ORIGINAL STORY: We’ve been granted a glance at what we can never have, as what seems to be a trailer for Mass Effect 5, named Mass Effect: Universe, has leaked online, likely by a pissed off employee of the now defunct company.
Since are in an age where faking things is easier than ever, it’s difficult to say absolutely that the trailer is real. All I can say is it seems real, has a lot of the classic Mass Effect visual flair and doesn’t seem to be suffering from any of the more common AI generation issues. Earlier today, IGN reported that a trailer for the game was indeed ready to go.
I can’t post the trailer here for obvious legal reasons, so I’ll give you a quick rundown.
We open with a quick message stating that the trailer is in-engine footage from “our small team” and contains pre-production assets. We learned the other day that BioWare was apparently only 50 people strong at the time of closure, so the small team number tracks.
It seems the protagonist would be a former military member who is now setting out on his own, perhaps as a hired gun or maybe even as a Spectre. He enters a nightclub of sorts and chats to an Asari who asks him about his past, and he explains that he left military service because nothing was changing; “…by the time you put out one fire, another one has already started.”
The fact that the flashback depicts our lead character with a shaved head in the military seems like a fun nod to shaved-head Shepard.
Our hero has his own sleek looking ship. We get a glimpse of him stepping up to a galaxy map similiar to what we already know, with a Krogan also standing there. Maybe a team mate? Then there’s a quick shot of our lead character quietly keeping an eye on a Salarian and a Turian.
We get a brief glimpse of what looks like a Biotic power that lets our hero dash forward in a spiral motion before punching a Salarian in the face. Same Salarian as earlier? Maybe.
The voice-over kicks back in and our main man describes his new job is “making the choices nobody else is willing to make” and “going where others are afraid to go.” As he says that, we see him walking arm-in-arm with a pretty woman, perhaps doing an infiltration mission, and of him standing before a weird looking creature being experimented on/analysed. It resembles a giant many-fingered hand.
Instead of chasing fires, he claims he’s now “stopping them before they start.” The Asari he ‘s been talking to smiles, leans in and tells him to be careful, because she’s the one who starts the fires. And that’s when it’s revealed our boy has brought backup in the form of Mass Effect OG Liara T’Soni, who sounds like she is still being voiced by Ali Hillis.
The trailer ends by giving us the game title, Mass Effect: Universe, and the promise that it is “Coming Soon.” This could indicate they were intending on releasing the trailer soon. On the other hand, this also has the kind of vibe of an internal pitch trailer.
The trailer is….fine. It’s hard to judge what the final product may have been based on a trailer that may never even have been intended to represent the final game. The big question is whether it’s real or AI generated. These days it’s so damn tough to tell, but my gut says it’s real. Most likely someone who was at BioWare decided to put it out there after learning they were out of a job. With any luck, maybe one of them will at least confirm the trailer was legit.
It seems like we will never get to see this new vision for Mass Effect, though, unless someone steps in to buy BioWare or the Mass Effect IP. EA has not announced any plans to sell the studio or the IP, though. Of course, there’s always the chance EA takes Mass Effect and hands it to a different team like Respawn, but they would likely start from the ground up.
