Mass Effect fans have been combing through both old teasers for the now-canceled Mass Effect: Universe and the various leaks surrounding the game, like an internal trailer from BioWare and details from people claiming to have consulted on it. What we do know about is that it would have taken place 600 years in the future, acknowledged all three of Mass Effect 3’s endings, and starred a new protagonist separate from Commander Shepard and Pathfinder Ryder. However, these teasers and leaks raise a lot of questions that have fans curious about what the game would have been, and the team that had been working on Universe before BioWare’s closure hopes to tell people what all its cryptic teasers meant one day.
Michael Gamble, who was the project director on Universe, has responded to a handful of posts on Twitter since BioWare’s closure, and while most are just him thanking folks for their well wishes, one response is to a fan asking if anyone is ever going to be able to explain that original 2020 teaser featuring original Mass Effect squadmate Liara T’Soni walking across a snowy planet strewn with what appeared to be Reaper corpses. Gamble responded simply saying “yes,” later clarifying that he simply meant he’d be able to explain it some day, not that he could offer fans advocating to save the game any “hope” that it might one day come back.
Odds are the people who worked on Universe are under an NDA agreement following BioWare’s closure, but those do have to end at some point. Some ex-BioWare developers have already revealed some details and talked openly about the leaked trailer, but they have also acknowledged there are some things they can’t talk about yet.
For now, fans have been rallying around a petition to see the game completed, potentially by EA handing the game off to another studio, or by licensing the IP to a team so it can “flourish anew.” Some fans are replying to Gamble’s posts telling him not to explain anything yet, as they still hope Universe can be saved, and they don’t want spoilers.