Next Mass Effect will ditch the open world and return to the series’ “classic format,” insiders tease

Mass Effect developer BioWare is pulling away from Andromeda’s open-world approach and plans to simplify its world for Mass Effect 4.

This news came via Window Central’s Jez Corden, who had heard rumors that BioWare was planning to “abandon the open world and return to… [the franchise’s] Classic shape.

Corden made this claim in the latest edition of his podcast, Xbox Two Podcastin a broader conversation about the pros of established studios adhering to the development blueprint that made their games so special versus the cons of taking risks and innovating, only to promptly crash and burn.

Reflecting on Bethesda’s success with Starfield and its recycling of many of the things we’ve come to expect from the team’s in-house development studios, Corden’s thoughts turned to Mass Effect, which had huge success in its first three games (the controversial ending of Mass Effect 3 aside), but struggled to deliver. Similar effect with Andromeda follow-up. That’s when the revelation was announced.

“I heard Mass Effect is ditching the open world and going back to the classic format. I don’t know if that’s 100% accurate, but it’s an industry rumor,” Corden said.

Is there much to go on? Probably not. If this is true, it probably wouldn’t be a surprise either. But that’s enough to make some Mass Effect fans very happy nonetheless. We’ll keep you posted if we hear more – rumor or otherwise.

“I sometimes wonder if BioWare will ever do another trilogy of games again, because the more time passes, the more I appreciate what an ambitious idea it was with Mass Effect,” Bertie wrote in his magnum opus, Making Mass Effect, from the Birth of the Andromeda Trilogy onwards, Where he interviewed Mass Effect writer Mac Walters.

“Three games that would tell one story and you could carry one hero all the way through – that’s not only bold, it’s absolutely outrageous, especially when you consider all the choices and consequences typically in a studio game. And only now really, when I don’t see anyone else Trying to do the same thing – not to this degree anyway – he realized how special it was.”