Mass Effect 5 Writers Reveal Story Plans After Game’s Cancellation

The fifth installment in BioWare’s Mass Effect series was announced six years ago. But the game was still in early development by a small team, and details about it—including who was hired to work on it—were never made public.

With BioWare officially shutting down, several employees have come forward to reveal their roles in the now-canceled Mass Effect game. That includes Derek Künsken, author of the award-winning sci-fi novel The Quantum Magician. In the wake of the game’s cancellation and BioWare’s announced closure, Künsken revealed he had spent the past five years working on Mass Effect 5.

Mass Effect 5 writers reveal themselves

Künsken said he worked closely with BioWare creative director Parrish Ley and narrative director Mary DeMarle on the now-canceled Mass Effect sequel. Alongside Catherynne Valente, who had already written a tie-in book for the series, Mass Effect Andromeda: Annihilation, he was tasked with pitching ideas for the story, characters, lore, and sci-fi elements.

I have a weird announcement. On and off for the last five years, as a contract writer, and as a senior writer on staff, I’ve been hoping to be allowed to say where I worked. Today I finally got the green light: I’ve been working on the next #MassEffect. 1/6
— Derek Künsken (@DerekKunsken) October 22, 2026

On social media, Valente and Künsken expressed sadness and pride in what they were able to accomplish at BioWare. “We were working on a great game,” Valente said in response to a post about BioWare’s closure. It appears BioWare had a strong team of writers lined up for Mass Effect 5 and wanted to deliver a narrative masterpiece on par with the original trilogy.

Both writers said they currently don’t know how much they can reveal about what they were working on. In the future, they hope to be able to share some details about the game that never came to be. This may be painful for fans, as the game will never see the light of day, but at least it could provide information to fuel new Mass Effect theories.

One project that will continue after the death of Mass Effect? The television show based on the nearly 20-year-old franchise.