Cancelled Mass Effect 5 would have let players merge saves into alternate timelines

Details are starting to surface about the Mass Effect game that BioWare never got to finish. According to PC Gamer, Mass Effect 5 would have let players generate alternate timelines from the choices they made in earlier games in the series.

The news comes as the studio's closure by EA continues to draw reaction from fans and developers, and it offers a first look at what the cancelled sequel might have done with the series' habit of carrying your decisions from one game to the next.

Saves that connect into parallel universes

The description comes from Romain Toutain, the series' technical director, who spoke during a livestream. "You had so many choices that you could plug your saves together to create parallel universes," Toutain said, as quoted by PC Gamer.

The outlet's report does not go into how the system would have worked in practice, so it is not clear how many past saves could be combined or how the game would have handled conflicting choices.

An unverified account of "Mass Effect Universe"

A second set of claims is much less certain. Eurogamer reports that a content creator who says they served on a BioWare community council has shared alleged details about the cancelled game, which they say was titled Mass Effect Universe. The creator says the project "looked incredible."

Those details come from one person's account and have not been confirmed by BioWare or EA in the reporting available to us, so they should be treated as unverified. Eurogamer frames them as claims, and so do we.

Reaction to the closure

The loss of BioWare has prompted tributes from well beyond the games industry. PC Gamer reports that award-winning sci-fi author NK Jemisin has joined the mourners, saying that "The [Mass Effect] and [Dragon Age] games were a literal inspiration." According to the outlet, Jemisin also scorns an industry that kills the geese that "laid the golden eggs."

What it means for players

With the studio closing and the next Mass Effect cancelled, there is no release to look forward to, and the alternate-timeline idea is likely to remain a what-if. Still, Toutain's comments show that player choice was meant to stay central to the series. We'll update this story if EA or BioWare says anything further about the cancelled project.