It's been a rather strange few days online for BioWare fans, with Dragon Age: The Veilguard's director confirmed to be leaving BioWare, and unconfirmed rumors that the developer's Edmonton studio could be closing. However, after some clarification from the Dragon Age director herself regarding her departure, some vague comments from the project director of Mass Effect 5 seemingly hint that fans of the sci-fi RPG series have nothing to worry about when it comes to the next game.
Corinne Busche had been at EA for over 18 years, but just a few months after the Dragon Age game she directed was released, she's off to a new role "in the CRPG space." In a statement sent to Eurogamer, she confirmed that her "departure was voluntary, as I have been presented with an opportunity I couldn't turn down," and said that she ultimately "did what I set out to do at BioWare. That is to come in and help right the ship." Before this, Eurogamer already claimed that BioWare had been unaffected by any other changes despite rumors that suggested otherwise – journalist Jeff Grubb separately stated that "I don't think EA is closing BioWare Edmonton" and "was told there is nothing solid about that part of the rumor."
Needless to say, you should certainly take the rumor with a pinch of salt, but if it'd left you concerned at all for the state of the next Mass Effect game, it appears that project director Michael Gamble has been offering some subtle reassurance that everything is going just fine with the upcoming sci-fi RPG. After simply stating "I love Mass Effect" on Twitter, one fan questions if that means he'd "hopefully had a good week at work?" To this, Gamble says: "Every week is a good week at work for me. [Mass Effect 5 producer] Brenon Holmes knows."
Gamble doesn't directly acknowledge Busche's departure from BioWare or the rumors about the developer's Edmonton studio, but he seems to be sending a pretty clear message that work on the next game is still going ahead as normal. Recent rumors aside, these sorts of messages are always nice to hear when details on the game itself have been so light on the ground in the years since we found out it was happening. Hell, we don't even know if it's actually called Mass Effect 5 yet. Here's hoping we'll get some more solid updates at some point soon.
