Mass Effect 5's top development brass includes a few original Mass Effect trilogy veterans

Look up to the skyline, and tell me what you see. It is me, standing on a hill, uttering firmly with my dying breath: Mass Effect: Andromeda was pretty good. For anyone currently gathered around the hill, searching the pockets of their N7 hoodies for more heavy objects to fling at me, however, here’s some good news: the as-yet unnamed Mass Effect 5 is in the capable hands of “trilogy vets”, according to project director Michael Gamble, via Le Epic Musk Zone (OP didn’t steal), formerly Twitter. The team heading up the space game franchise’s next entry comprises of veterans of the first three games in various leading roles, namely: Art Director, Game Director, Creative Director, and Executive Producer.

The confirmation comes from a thread started by Xitter user and freelance illustrator @kalaelizabeth, which Gamble then replied to, confirming that, yes, The Mass Effect 5 leadership features several staff that have been with the franchise since its inception. “I sincerely think the game is in very good hands & the narrative that everyone left is disrespectful to those still there, games aren’t made by 1 dev!” wrote the OP, sentiments I’m sure we can all get behind. Another user then asked for proof, magically summoning Project Director Mike Gamble to confirm. Gamble himself held a producer role on both Anthem and Andromeda. Hey, Mike, nice work! On Andromeda, I mean. Because Andromeda? Good game. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Especially the combat. Nice bit of producing there.

The last bit of substantial, uh, anything we got related to Mass Effect 5 was last year’s N7 Day trailer ‘Epsilon’, which hinted at connections to Mass Effect 3. This checks out especially now that we know that leadership will likely want to pick up the trilogy where they left off in some form, although how they’ll follow up from them endings is anyone’s guess. Mike Gamble, in a blog post that accompanied the trailer, said that the team has been asking themselves “many of the same questions you’ve asked us over the years! What happened to everyone you know and love in the games? Who really died? What about S– nevermind…you get the idea.”

In fairness, any fears about Mass Effect 5 not retaining the spirit of the original trilogy aren’t coming out of nowhere. While Bioware were dropping that trailer, the same N7 day also saw laid-off QA staff protesting outside the company’s Edmonton, Canada HQ. At the same time, seven former BioWare full time staff accused the company of “stalling and intimidation tactics to try and get us to drop out.” Basically, Bioware hasn’t been shy about shedding the talent that helped build its reputation. Meanwhile, OG trilogy head writer Mac Walters won’t be involved, since he’s off working on a new sci-fi project at Worlds Untold, a studio he founded. Until we learn more, you can find out everything we know about Mass Effect 5 so far here, which, honestly, is probably about as much as you do.