Despite the eye-catching success of BioWare’s Dragon: Age Inquisition, the studio has stated that the fantasy RPG won’t necessarily have a direct influence on the upcoming Mass Effect 4, and that the next chapter in the space-faring adventure will be much more than a simple palette swap.
In a post via NeoGaf, BioWare’s General Manager Aaryn Flynn spoke briefly about the vision for the sequel.
“All of our games are using Frostbite now,” he explained. “We’ve said the next Mass Effect (and our new IP, but I won’t expand on that yet) uses some of the technology from DAI. We’ve been enjoying building larger areas that you can explore with less friction, so that’ll be there as well. But after that, the next Mass Effect will be (and should be) drawing on its own rich and successful past more than what DAI would say it should do.”
Further in the extract, Flynn also touched upon how the decision to forgo PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 has benefited development, allowing the creative team to double down on their vision without having to compromise the final product for older hardware. Still, the manager did point out the resemblance between Mass Effect 4 and DA:I, which will each be built using the same technical DNA and open-world gameplay. That said, the similarities stop there for BioWare.
“We’re very proud of what DAI has achieved, but that does not set a ‘template’ for what every other game we make needs to be. Each game franchise needs to innovate and improve their experience based on what’s best for it, not just what another game had success with because ‘well that was successful’.”
For now, Mass Effect 4 is still without a release date. However, all signs point to EA revealing more information about the galactic sequel during E3 or Gamescom.
