Thursday, October 22nd 2026
Leaked Trailer Shows the Mass Effect Game BioWare Was Making Before EA Shut It Down
A day after EA shut down BioWare, a trailer for the canceled next Mass Effect game has leaked online, and it seems the game was going to be called Mass Effect: Universe. Reddit user Random_Hyabusa_Ninja posted the roughly two-minute clip on r/masseffect on October 22, first in the replies of another post, and then as a standalone post. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has since confirmed on Bluesky that it's a real trailer for the Mass Effect game BioWare was working on up until the closure. The clip is a cinematic rather than gameplay. It follows a new human protagonist, with no sign of Shepard, through a tense bar conversation with an Asari who appears to be Liara T'Soni, cuts to a few gunfights and a Krogan, and ends on the Mass Effect: Universe logo.
The leak also raises questions about how far along the game actually was. EA's internal memo described it as being in early development, and around 50 of the 400 jobs EA is cutting were tied to it. However, a Reddit user claiming to be an EA employee said the trailer had been ready for months and that the project was further along than people think. BioWare first teased the game back in 2020, so that claim doesn't seem far-fetched, but its source is questionable at best. There's no word from EA on the leak so far, though it's reasonable to expect takedown requests to follow.
Sources:
Reddit, Jason Schreier on Bluesky
The leak also raises questions about how far along the game actually was. EA's internal memo described it as being in early development, and around 50 of the 400 jobs EA is cutting were tied to it. However, a Reddit user claiming to be an EA employee said the trailer had been ready for months and that the project was further along than people think. BioWare first teased the game back in 2020, so that claim doesn't seem far-fetched, but its source is questionable at best. There's no word from EA on the leak so far, though it's reasonable to expect takedown requests to follow.
9 Comments on Leaked Trailer Shows the Mass Effect Game BioWare Was Making Before EA Shut It Down
Makes me wanna replay the trilogy 🌌
The trailer does look nice though!
de.vgtimes.com/video/172029-canceled-mass-effect-5-cinematic-trailer-leaks-online.html
This was 14 years ago!
this was not even near anywhere close to being done, it would have been a huge $ pit in hopes that they could at least not screw up another game, and obviously, there was zero confidence in Bioware because of all their failures that they have had
That report came just mere weeks after EA CEO Andrew Wilson blamed BioWare for the game underperforming in EA's latest financial report.
What leaked now (assuming it's real) was likely made with pre-production assets.
Not to mention the compression and source. It might not even be the full quality version.
Considering the proximity to November 7th, i wonder if this was meant to come out during N7 day?
Still it looks good enough that there's something there. Im getting a James Bond type of vibe from it.
And given that EA chose to end production, it just means that whatever they saw, it just wasn't worth any more investment. Moreso when it's taken this long to just even get an early trailer after all the years of meandering with no direction on how they'd recover trust and faith from the ME fanbase after ME:A's high-profile failure.
That's probably the best mercy offered to the franchise; EA should just instead license it out and let others come up with their own stories in the universe and rake in profits off whatever succeeds and takes no loss off the ones that fail.
It speaks volumes.