BioWare Founders Explore Options to Rescue Mass Effect from EA

Mass Effect might have a way back. Trent Oster, who founded BioWare and now runs his own studio, says he has been crunching numbers to see what it would take to pull the franchise away from its publisher and hand it to a smaller AA team. You have seen that model with Archetype, a group of BioWare alumni building Exodus, a game that feels like the next Mass Effect.

In his post, he wonders whether there is another way to finance games that supports a better product instead of undermining it. He says players will expect the best of AAA development from Mass Effect, and based on similar games, he puts the rough cost at $200 million or more.

That is a big sum to commit upfront, so a bigger plan around the IP would have to exist.

Even so, he thinks a disciplined approach and an experienced team could do it for less. Archetype's founder, James Ohlen, replied that he would take any excuse to work on Dragon Age again, and he was the first person Trent Oster asked about teaming up.

James Ohlen stepped away from Exodus once his main duties were finished, citing burnout. Whether a return to either franchise is enough for someone who already went through a lot at BioWare, built his own studio, and burned out again is hard to say. He would also need to join the talks to secure funding, whether from a fund or a government contract.

Sandfall Interactive, the team behind Clair Obscur, is led by Guillaume Broche, who previously worked at Ubisoft. Rebel Wolves, which just made The Blood of Dawnwalker, is led by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who directed The Witcher 3 at CDPR before forming a much smaller team.

There is a clear hunger to take an IP, make something similar, or rescue Mass Effect from EA. James Ohlen, Drew Karpyshyn and other developers left the publisher to make Exodus at Archetype, and the unspoken part of his reply is probably that he does not want to step on Exodus's toes. They spent years on their next chunk of lore.

Going back to Mass Effect after building a new universe is a big ask.

Then again, the publisher took the series in different directions, especially in the third game. They might want it back to make a proper fourth entry the way they planned before a publisher sat on top of them. The push to revive Mass Effect has been strong, with news stories every other day and comments under the publisher's other games asking where the next Mass Effect is.

Moving on is fine, but it’s still fun to wonder what the people behind the first Mass Effect could do with full creative control and proper funding. The publisher holds onto its IPs rather than licensing them out for brand tie-ins like remasters or crossovers.

Dead Space turned up in Battlefield, yet the series has done nothing since its remake. And with so much momentum behind the save movement, EA can push the price past what smaller groups could ever afford. It might seem like little, but it can also sell a Mass Effect skin pack for Battlefield at any time, and it is now owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

EA is more money-driven than ever, with a report claiming much of its development is now AI-led and insiders calling it depressing. Mass Effect is only worth reviving if the creatives get full control. A new Dragon Age would work on those terms, without a forced live-service pivot like Dragon Age: The Veilguard.