Anonymous BioWare Employee Posts Trailer for Cancelled Mass Effect Title

A convincingly realistic trailer for the cancelled Mass Effect game has surfaced online, shared by former BioWare developers.

BioWare, the long-running studio behind games such as Dragon Age, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and, of course, Mass Effect, was shut down just a day earlier by Electronic Arts. In the wake of that devastating news, a trailer for what would have been Mass Effect 5 is now circulating online from anonymous sources, which means it could be fake.

A leaked trailer for Mass Effect 5

As if having nothing to lose, a BioWare developer has posted a trailer for Mass Effect‘s next game online. There is currently no way to verify whether the trailer is genuine, but based on earlier teasers for the game and the state of development it would have been in, it seems credible.

The trailer opens with a disclaimer reading, “the following is in-engine footage from our small team. It uses our pre-production assets.” What follows is a roughly two-minute trailer following a man in an N7 coat as he walks up to a bar and strikes up a conversation with an Asari woman. Snippets of his past in the Alliance military play before showing his “new line of work.” Clips of action-movie-esque set pieces—stand-offs, alluring women, shoot-outs, and high-speed vehicles—play out, showing players what’s to come.

The trailer ends with a brawl in the bar after Liara appears as the unnamed man’s ally, showing off some well-choreographed action. Finally, the game’s title, “Mass Effect: Universe,” is revealed and a final frame of “Coming soon” appears, just to twist the knife before it fades away.

Is there a future for Mass Effect?

While BioWare has been shut down, there is still potential (however unlikely) for a future for Mass Effect. Mark Darrah, a former BioWare executive, spoke on the issue of IP on his YouTube channel, in which he theorized that video game IPs like Mass Effect or Dragon Age could be sold off. However, he said it’s equally likely that they’re “likely to just try to forget that they ever existed and bury them in the vault.”

That speculation isn’t encouraging, but it does mean that the future isn’t entirely closed to another shot for Mass Effect down the line. For such a well-known series of games with so much potential for more stories, it does seem like an attractive IP for another company to seek out.

For now, at least, fans have the leaked trailer to appreciate and mourn in equal measure.