Mass Effect moves house, BioWare Edmonton planning "whole new fictional universe"

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In a panel at PAX East, Mass Effect executive producer Casey Hudson has given some details about the next entry in the series. Okay, so 'details' might be a little strong. 'Vague hints of the studio's development plans' is probably closer to the mark. Hudson did, however, also give a similarly cryptic teaser about the existence of a brand new fictional universe being developed by BioWare Edmonton.

Production of the next Mass Effect game is taking place at BioWare Montreal, with the Edmonton-based Hudson keeping his executive producer role. That frees up the Edmonton team to work on something entirely new. "We are developing a whole new fictional universe at BioWare for myself and Preston [Watamaniuk, Mass Effect's lead designer]. That's kind of our next thing," Hudson said. "We're focusing on building something new the way we did at the very beginning on Mass Effect."

And if the promise of more Mass Effect and a new IP doesn't spark your interest, Hudson also mentioned... oh, false alarm, it's just the Mass Effect movie. In fairness, the team sounds excited by the work done on the game's big screen debut, with Hudson saying, "what we're looking at are, I think, the right things to make sure it's gong to be a great movie. It's not just going to be a movie; it's going to be really special." Still, even these reassurances aren't enough to break through my wariness of game to film adaptations. I've been hurt before.

Thanks, Kotaku .

Phil Savage
Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.