With all the fuss over Anthem, and the ugly stepchild that was Mass Effect: Andromeda, some of us BioWare fans were afeared we would never get the chance to save the universe - or bang a Krogan - ever again. All is not lost though, as BioWare executive producer Mike Darrah has promised there will be more installments of the sexy space opera.
"We’re definitely not done with Mass Effect," he told Polygon. "There’s a lot of stories to be told. We could pull on the threads we put down with Andromeda; we could pull on threads from Mass Effect 3. There’s a lot of interesting space to be explored."
Don't start throwing on your spacesuit just yet, though: after Anthem, the next big release from BioWare is likely to be a new installment of its fantasy-focused Dragon Age series. We got an official teaser trailer at last year's Game Awards, and will probably see more around E3. That makes a new Mass Effect before 2020 a very unlikely prospect.
"In my mind, it’s very much alive,” adds general manager Casey Hudson. "I’m thinking all the time about things that I think will be great. It’s just a matter of getting back to it as soon as we can."
A post-2020 release means Mass Effect 5 could be a next generation game, which could be just what the series needs after the gurning nightmares that helped doom Mass Effect: Andromeda with memes and internet infamy. After the epic adventures that made up the original trilogy, the series has earned a second chance.
Mass Effect's Citadel held the trilogy together by giving you the universe to explore under one roof; ten years on, it’s time to celebrate video gaming’s greatest homage to Babylon 5.
