Following the cancellation of Mass Effect Universe (commonly still known as Mass Effect 5) and closure of BioWare, details of the project have continued to slip out for what the game was aiming to be, a snazzy new trailer that was just about to be shared on N7 day, and now what it would sound like.
Acclaimed composer Austin Wintory was writing music for the game and has now shared a 20 minute exploration of what he had worked on, literally just vibing and working on some early ideas. He didn’t have any details on the story or specific scenes, but decided in 2025 to just go for it and start composing.
He writes:
Working on Mass Effect 5 was my career’s biggest dream project, my white whale. It is my favorite franchise of all time, and for the last couple years I’d been in serious conversations with BioWare and EA to jump in. My suggestion was to treat the original game’s masterful Jack Wall / Sam Hulick score as a starting point, and to build on it from there with deeper use of physical, analog synths and a more tightly interwoven use of the orchestra. But a love letter first and foremost (not unlike my approach to the Aliens franchise with Fireteam Elite)
As part of the ongoing dialogue, I decided last year (2025) to surprise the folks with an elaborate production: nearly 20 minutes of music, fully recorded and produced with synths, vocals and a large orchestra here in LA. I’d not yet learned any narrative details of what they were planning so this was just pure musical exploration.
Receiving the news alongside everyone else that EA had decided to not only cancel the project but shutdown BioWare entirely was a deeply felt loss. It’s been hard to see dear friends lose their jobs, and this beloved franchise seemingly vanish forever.
Thank you nonetheless to everyone at BioWare and EA’s music department for gifting me the chance to dream in your sandbox. It was a privilege to do even that much.
Alas, it’s vanishingly unlikely that any of that work will see the light of day within a video game. EA has canned Mass Effect Universe and shut down BioWare, but that hasn’t hundreds of thousands signing a Change.org petition, and even pooling cash to buy billboard advertising in Time Square.
Mass Effect Universe would have been set roughly 600 years after the original trilogy – as confirmed by Dantics, a community member in the Mass Effect Council – leaning in on more of a spy thriller arc for your character as opposed to being a soldier. A galactic cold war had emerged between three major factions, with Liara now the Asari Matriarch and pulling some of the strings as you work in the shadows.
Will any of the efforts and outpouring of love for the series make a difference? It’s doubtful that it will move the needle for EA’s new owners…
Source: Austin Wintory
