First appearing on Reddit earlier today, the trailer for the now-canceled Mass Effect title that BioWare was working on at the time of its closure has leaked online. For much of the day, the provenance and authenticity of the trailer had been unclear; however, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has since been able to confirm that this leak is indeed the trailer that was rumored to have been complete when BioWare was officially shut down yesterday.
Schreier stated via a post on Bluesky:
Can confirm that this is a real trailer of the Mass Effect game that BioWare was developing up until its closure yesterday.
The leaked trailer gives fans at least a small glimpse at what could have been, using pre-production assets, and was assembled by a small team within the company. Despite that, the visuals on offer are of a high quality, with some dynamic action sequences that could be in-game or pre-rendered. What would have been even cooler is that much older Liara T’Soni, a fan favorite from the original trilogy, appears near the end of the trailer.
The story itself appears to be more of a spy thriller, with the protagonist stating that he was in the military and left. When asked, “So what changed?” he responds with “Nothing. That was the problem.” Given that the original trilogy protagonist, Commander Shepard, was a soldier, this makes the narrative feel directly aimed at going against the previously established status quo. This title would be set hundreds of years after the third entry, with Liara’s appearance fitting that timeline, given that Asari can live to be over 1,000.
Back in November of 2025, BioWare assured fans they were still committed to developing Mass Effect 5, or Mass Effect Universe, as the trailer implies its name would have been. Based on this, the company never wavered from that commitment but had little to no option in the face of EA’s massive $55 billion buyout. EA and Prime Video have confirmed that the Mass Effect TV series is still in production despite the closure of BioWare and cancelation of this title.
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