A trailer for Mass Effect 5, purportedly titled Mass Effect: Universe, has seemingly leaked online in the aftermath of developer BioWare's shutdown under EA.
The trailer, posted to the Mass Effect subreddit by a fresh Reddit user who describes their account as a "new burner," is just over two minutes long and completely gameplay-free.
Fans have already begun scouring it for generative AI markers, though it seems unlikely that something of this quality could've been slapped together within 24 hours of BioWare's shutdown.
Mass Effect: Universe Trailerfrom r/masseffect
While unverified, this trailer is turning heads in part because a self-described EA employee claimed, on October 21, that "there was a trailer ready for Mass Effect 5 that I saw a few months ago, so I’m puzzled as to how 'early' they were," referring to the early production stage described by EA leadership in a statement.
"Also for clarification, the Mass Effect group is about 50 devs from what I’ve seen," this source added. "The Austin studio has been a mix of people supporting different games for some years now. So the Austin office will remain open, just no more BioWare unfortunately"
The trailer was originally posted several hours ago in a reply to a post sharing that reported EA employee's message. "Ask and you shall receive," the mystery user wrote.
The video is convincing, and if legitimate, will likely be hit with a takedown notice of some kind soon enough. Of course, that would only add fuel to the fire online, and nothing every truly leaves the internet.
The least believable part of the trailer comes right at the end: "Coming soon." Soon is one of those words that's eternally misused by the games industry, but based on comments from EA and former BioWare employees, the next Mass Effect still needed plenty of time in the oven. Granted, this argument makes a lot of assumptions about the validity of the trailer and its intended release window.
Based on this supposed trailer, Mass Effect 5 would've paired recurring and visibly older character Liara T'Soni (that's the second blue alien girl to appear here, to be clear) with a new ex-military, human hero in place of longtime protagonist Shepherd. A character of the same Turian race as fan-favorite character Garrus Vakarian appears around 1:31 in the trailer. The scenario feels like an ambush operation, which some fans have interpreted as a dip into corporate espionage from BioWare.
It's also worth noting that Mass Effect's annual day of celebration, N7 Day, was just a few weeks away. It's plausible BioWare could've trotted this trailer out on November 7, had EA not pulled the plug, but there's already enough wishful thinking going around.
"Man, I'm just so sad and angry," one Mass Effect fan writes in a reply to the trailer post.
"I know one of you BioWare developers are probably lurking in this sub, just want to say this looks fucking awesome. I’m so sorry this happened. Keep fighting," says another.
