Hopefully they learn a lesson if there is one to be learned and go on to do better things.

Wait, so they're making a completely new IP as well as another Mass Effect game? I think I'm more interested to see what that new game is more than a new Mass Effect game even though I still love the series very much, unlike most people.

They should tease their way back onto steam again or I won't buy their products.

LOL WE'RE MAKING Another mass effect and we need ideas so please send them . are you joking? dragon age 3 is going to be pitiful. this is the worst day ever. first blizzard now bioware. next will be bungie. and valve will be the only great company that remains.

@Thanatos3: Well, I love sci-fi, or, actually science in general, and I like the future Bioware created, but yes, I really like the characters as well.

Heck, just make a gaiden game that follows the fan favorites of the trilogy if nothing else. All I care is that the time period takes place AFTER the end of Mass3 or BEFORE the beginning of Mass1. I just can't get behind the DLC they're releasing for 3 that takes place before the singleplayer end. It worked fine in Mass2 but isn't appealing for 3.

Mihgt be interesting to have a Mass Effect prequel, set during the First Contact War.

It will have to be a Mass Effect on rails first person shooter...that is the only conceivable idea...that and Mass Effect Virtual Fighter

I was a little disappointed with ME3 as ME2 was better, so going to wait till all the DLC is released, making it a fuller game for my second play through.

@Viking_Funeral said:

@Brodehouse Still proves the point that longer development cycles aren't necessarily a hindrance, which is the original contention.

I said they make the game look X amount of years old after you start getting over 2, 2.5 or 3 years. You lock your technology about 6-9 months into development, at the same time other companies are locking their technology... if their game comes out 1-2 years before yours, it can be reasonably assumed that your game is going to look 1-2 years old. If you started development on a Source engine game in 2006 and are releasing it today, you might get the benefit of adding in some more modern shader effects and whatnot, but it probably won't look much different from Left 4 Dead which was released 4 years ago. This was one of the problems with Duke Nukem Forever, they kept generating new assets and then throwing out old assets until the technology was antiquated, then they'd start all over again on a new engine.

I'm actually for a 3 year development on new franchises and first games in a series, but direct sequels can carry over technology and a certain amount of art and practices. Naughty Dog put together Uncharted 2 in 22 months and that game is unreal. Granted, they're superstars and not everyone is Naughty Dog, but the two year development cycle isn't some new brutal thing. In fact, it's longer than the average cycle had been throughout game history. It's as long as BioWare had ever spent on a game until the original Mass Effect (3 years) and Dragon Age Origins (5 years, which they probably would've preferred to have been 3).

Financially it can be a hindrance as well; if you're paying double the amount of salaries and expenses because of a longer dev cycle, you require your game to sell twice as much to break even.

I would actually say exactly that when talking about Skyrim, for all the excitement about 'brand new graphics engine' it's just a fresh coat of paint on Gamebryo.

Actaully, now that I think of it, Firaxis usually uses Gamebryo too. ... And late game Civ has the same frame rate problems late game Skyrim does. Huh. XCOM is apparently on UE3, so texture pop is the only thing scary there.

You know... despite my sour feelings about ME3, I'm actually pretty excited about the prospect of a new ME game.

Maybe that's what they want, the doctors want to hide their retreat? maybe that's my optimism, but they were tired and wanted to leave, if it was scandal or were thrown out maybe. Besides covering their retreat, it reassuring to see news that bioware will continue to move forward...in what direction i have no idea, but moving forward.

Is anyone still interested in ME3 DLC after the finalty (and maybe poor taste) left by the game's ending. In regard to a new game, but I would rather wait until the next set of consoles. Let things settle down from Mass Effect 3.

would be nice to get another Jade Empire, but oh well..

Shepard has so many illegitimate babies that they will have sequels for days.

@Thanatos3 said:

@LikeaSsur: No offense but Tidus was the worst part of X for me, Mass Effect is going to need to distance itself from Shepard and the characters of 1-3 to continue for me, they wont live past the stigma of that ending.

Okay, well, regardless of your opinion on Tidus, the point was that most people associate these universes with the big hero. Without the hero, there's not much of a reason to go back to that world, unless they really pull something awesome out of their hat, and considering the two head honchos of Bioware just left, I doubt this will happen.

I'm glad that the last dlc leviathan revealed the how the reapers took the form that they did and their origins. Was a really good piece of dlc that blended well into the story. Still waiting for the aria ta'lok and omega dlc to come. The next game should be set years after the end of 3 with the choice you made at the end affecting that games story.

After ME3 ended so badly and Casey Hudson slagging off the fans, saying he is on board may not have been the best PR move. You can't promise and then not deliver and then expect sales for your sequel to be any good.

Mass Effect 3 was an excellent game, a great trilogy (otherwise I wouldn't have played it for so long, tbf), but I've had my fill. I'd be more likely to go back through ME2 for an ME fix these days

If they got the people responsible for Tuchanka to handle the branching story-telling aspect of whatever new stuff they come up with, I'd be on board. For all the stuff I hated about ME3, that section of it was a piece of brilliance. After playing Tuchanka though myself, I watched lots of youtube footage of other people's experiences, and was impressed at how intricate that whole section was, and how many different ways it could play out, all of them satisfying in their own ways.

THAT is how you handle story telling in a game, IMHO. If I could have a whole game like that, I'd gladly pay full price for it.

@MarkWahlberg: What!? You mean you didn't like driving the Mako around on barren textured height-map? I mean, planets?

@PoisonJam7: fuck yo' space monkeys VRRRMMMM

I'd like to see something a bit different and more RPG in Mass Effect. Rather than a named character, give us the same flexibility of race choice, etc. that you see in Bethesda's Skyrim, and give us a more open world with fewer linear maps. It could be happening at the same time as ME1 or ME2, in different parts of the galaxy and dealing with other aspects of the emerging conflict. Give us more armor and weapon customization, character customization, etc. It might even be interesting to play as an agent of Liara after she becomes the Shadow Broker. That would unify some of the mission arcs.

Mostly, though, I want more RPG and less third-person shooter (although I don't mind the mix that ME2 offered, so long as they give more customization).

@umdesch4 said:

If they got the people responsible for Tuchanka to handle the branching story-telling aspect of whatever new stuff they come up with, I'd be on board. For all the stuff I hated about ME3, that section of it was a piece of brilliance. After playing Tuchanka though myself, I watched lots of youtube footage of other people's experiences, and was impressed at how intricate that whole section was, and how many different ways it could play out, all of them satisfying in their own ways.

THAT is how you handle story telling in a game, IMHO. If I could have a whole game like that, I'd gladly pay full price for it.

A lot of ME3 plays out this way. A large number of mid-game sections play out very differently based on your previous choices. The Tuchanka bit -- I played the end game of that section through with three different characters, and had wildly different experiences. It was bloody brilliant.

I don't want to rehash the arguments over the ending, but I still think that people are underestimating the amount of customization that went into everything leading up to the last hour of the game. That the story came together at all in the end was quite a feat, given the amount of choices made. I still don't think it's fair to judge the entire franchise by the last section with its rather cut-and-dried choices. It's obvious Bioware didn't know what it was getting into with Mass Effect, and the complexity that would emerge.

I think the lessons they learned from the franchise will help guide any new ME series they build. Key bits: don't let your stories branch out too much or you won't be able to tie them together, and keep the same writers on the project all the way through.

@haggis said:

I'd like to see something a bit different and more RPG in Mass Effect. Rather than a named character, give us the same flexibility of race choice, etc. that you see in Bethesda's Skyrim, and give us a more open world with fewer linear maps. It could be happening at the same time as ME1 or ME2, in different parts of the galaxy and dealing with other aspects of the emerging conflict. Give us more armor and weapon customization, character customization, etc. It might even be interesting to play as an agent of Liara after she becomes the Shadow Broker. That would unify some of the mission arcs.

Mostly, though, I want more RPG and less third-person shooter (although I don't mind the mix that ME2 offered, so long as they give more customization).

Well said. ME3's shoebox level design is largely what ruined the game for me, even though the entire series has been guilty of it.

This could be a prequel focused on the contact war; or a sequel that is several centuries or decades after ME3 

I had a feeling this would happen once EA took control. Not even remotely surprised, but pretty disappointed.

I don't know. Another Mass Effect after the doctors left. Let's see.

Please dont be a Prequel. Please dont be a prequel. Please dont be a prequel....or a damn sidestory.

im ok with some more ME3 dlc, though i think no more ME sequels for me. i think the franchise should settle with the trilogy. if they add more ME sequels it might be a little excessive (like what I felt when i saw the MGS ground zeroes trailer, which is a prequel to MGS 5) or might not live up to the quality of the trilogy. maybe if they want to add sequels bioware should wait awhile, around a few years or so.