// Mod Edit:
Since Yanick Roy is the director of BioWare Montreal instead of a community manager, I thought I would refocus the thread on his comments:
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There is a lot more at the link, thanks Eurogamer
Since Yanick Roy is the director of BioWare Montreal instead of a community manager, I thought I would refocus the thread on his comments:
Yannick Roy said:Hi guys,
It’s my first time posting on the forums, so I hope I’m going to do it right!
What Chris is saying is that thinking of the next Mass Effect game as Mass Effect 4 would imply a certain linearity, a straight evolution of the gameplay and story of the first three games. But because we are switching to a new engine and need to rebuild a bunch of game systems, we have an opportunity to rethink how we want these systems to be going forward instead of just inheriting them from the previous games. Story-wise, the arc of the first trilogy has also been concluded, and what we will do is tell a new story set in the Mass Effect universe. That doesn’t mean that events of the first three games and the choices you made won’t get recognized, but they likely won’t be what this new story will focus on.
In other words, because the game takes place before of after the first trilogy does not mean it necessarily is a straight prequel or sequel.
I’m not a big fan of analogies because the images you use always mean something different to different people, so they are inherently flawed. But let me use one anyway.
If you had three games centered around a group of key soldiers in the US army during World War I and then decided to make a game about another group of people during the second World War, the games could have many points in common and feel true to one another, and you likely would have to recognize how the events of the first war influenced the ones of the second, but you would not necessarily think of it as a sequel. Again, the analogy is
not great, but what I’m trying to say is that the ME universe is so rich that we are not limited to a single track when coming up with a new story.
I apologize for being cryptic right now, but it’s early enough in development that we don’t have much to share – things still fluctuate quite a bit. As I have posted on Twitter though, the overall feeling of what you are discussing and asking for is very much aligned with what the team intends on delivering, and that makes me feel very good about where we’re heading!
I hope this helps clarify why we’re not thinking of the next ME game as ME4 internally!
Yannick Roy said:What makes it Mass Effect is indead the alien races, the technology, the lore, history, etc. You can safely expect those in the next Mass Effect.
Yannick Roy said:While getting a Mass Effect MMO at some point is not impossible, you'll be happy to hear that this is not the game we're talking about when we talk about the next Mass Effect.
Yannick Roy said:Correct, that's what I meant. Time does indeed matter, but the words prequel / midquel / sequel come loaded with a bunch of other assumptions that don't necessarily all apply to the next ME game.
Yannick Roy said:By the way, thank you all for making me feel welcome here. I don't know how regularly I'll be able to stop by the forums, but given that today is the first time in the 7+ years I've been with BioWare, it should not be too hard to improve my batting average!
Yannick Roy said:Thanks!
We don't have a firm communication timeline established at this point, but I don't expect it will be for several more months. Early in development, things fluctuate so much that any detail we communicate could have to be "uncommunicated" a few months later. I think we'd rather have something solid to show by the time we step in the spotlight. You can definitely expect to hear DA3 details before ones about the next ME!
Yannick Roy said:Yes, you want a game that happens after ME3, that makes perfect sense
Yannick Roy said:Arcian wrote...
I'm quite willing to believe that EA tells you guys to look at games like Cod and BF3 for gameplay inspiration, so take this sometimes humble fan's advice and look at Deus Ex instead.
While I'm sure EA would love to see us achieve the same level of commercial success these games do (who wouldn't!?), please believe me when I tell you they want us to do "BioWare Games"!
Thanks for the feedback... and the hazmat suit!
Yannick Roy said:ADelusiveMan wrote...
Welcome to the forum, Yanick. You are definitely going to need that hazmat suit here. Maybe even a shield to go over it.
There is something I'd like bring up to you, by the way. In the original trilogy, during cutscenes, Shepard would always pull up a Predator pistol or Avenger assault rifle when facing enemies. If you choose, for example, an adept/vanguard as your character class, is it possible in ME4 that biotics could flare up instead? If you bring biotics and stuff back, that is.
This is definitely the most specific request I've gotten so far! I'll pass that on to the team!
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"To call the next game Mass Effect 4 or ME4 is doing it a disservice and seems to cause a lot of confusion here," BioWare community manager Chris Priestly wrote on the company's forums.
"We have already said that the Commander Shepard trilogy is over and that the next game will not feature him/her. That is the only detail you have on the game. I see people saying 'well, they'll have to pick a canon ending'. No, because the game does not have to come after. Or before. Or off to the side. Or with characters you know. Or yaddayaddayadda."
"Thinking of the next Mass Effect game as Mass Effect 4 would imply a certain linearity, a straight evolution of the gameplay and story of the first three games," he wrote. "That doesn't mean that events of the first three games and the choices you made won't get recognised, but they likely won't be what this new story will focus on.
There is a lot more at the link, thanks Eurogamer