How Far Along Is Mass Effect 5? Former Dev Provides Some Insight

Now that Dragon Age: The Veilguard has shipped and BioWare is free to pour its resources into the fifth entry in the Mass Effect series, players are naturally getting excited. But according to former executive producer Mark Darrah, it’ll take some time for BioWare to really get the game development wheels turning.

“Mass Effect isn’t ready to suddenly have a team of 250, 300 people working on it,” Darrah said in a newly released video documenting the production of Veilguard. “In the past when BioWare was toying with being on just one project, like on Anthem or The Veilguard, that project was up and running at full speed so it was able to suck in every available resource. It had enough existing infrastructure that it was able to absorb everything.”

“That’s not exactly what’s happening [with Mass Effect 5],” Darrah continued. “You see this when you go on to people’s social media profiles. People who worked on The Veilguard, some of them are going onto [work on] Mass Effect, but some of them are moving into other parts of the EA organisation because Mass Effect isn’t ready for them.”

Darrah worked for BioWare for 23 years, so although he may not be a current employee, he does likely have a pretty good idea of the studio’s inner workings. At any rate, the lack of advertising for Mass Effect 5 also suggests that the game’s development is still in its infancy. It was first announced in 2020, but it’s been crickets from BioWare since then.

“This [decision to focus on one game at a time] might be great,” Darrah said of BioWare’s steady, focused approach to the game’s development, “Because what it means is BioWare–for really the first time ever–is able to singularly focus on a single project, is able to put all [its] attention on a single project, is able to put everything it has towards a single goal, which is making the best Mass Effect it possibly can.”