👀 A trailer purportedly from Mass Effect 5 has leaked online
🥰 The trailer shows pre-production footage with one of the game’s most iconic characters
🤝 Liara T’Soni turns up towards the end to help the new protagonist
😭 The footage comes after EA laid off all of BioWare’s staff and closed the studio earlier this week
A trailer that seems like it’s from a Mass Effect title that’s never seen the light of day – presumably Mass Effect 5 – has appeared on the internet.
As per Game Informer, a trailer for the sci-fi sequel – which was reportedly BioWare’s last project before EA closed the studio earlier this week – has appeared online, and folks in the know think it’s genuine.
If you want to see for yourself, you can watch the trailer on Reddit.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has confirmed he believes the footage to be real – he has a good track record in the industry, and was the first to break the news about EA laying off all of BioWare as part of a wider 400 job losses. IGN has also stated it has confirmed the legitimacy of the trailer.
Text at the start of the video states that “the following is in-engine footage from our small team” and that it “uses our pre-production assets”, confirming this was for some kind of internal use – perhaps to show to higher-ups that a fifth Mass Effect title had potential.
The footage doesn’t show any gameplay, but has a CG cutscene of a new protagonist talking with an asari woman in a crowded bar. There are glimpses of the protagonist as a soldier and then a spy, where he travels to planets to track down conflicts and stop them “before they start”.
The asari woman then reveals she’s been “starting the fires” he’s been trying to prevent, before a different woman behind her lowers a hood. This new woman reveals herself to be Liara T’Soni, one of Mass Effect’s most iconic characters.
Liara and the protagonist then team up to take out the woman at the bar and her henchmen by using guns and telekinetic abilities, before the trailer fades to black to reveal the game’s apparent title: Mass Effect Universe.
It’s a shame this will likely never see the light of day, as the trailer looked rather good.
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Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.