Cancelled Mass Effect: Universe was set 600 years after the Reaper War, claims ex-council member

A YouTuber who says he advised BioWare on its next game has shared what he saw of Mass Effect: Universe, and the picture is of a very different sequel. In a post on X, Dantics said that, now BioWare has closed, he can reveal he was part of the “Mass Effect Council” and gave feedback during development. None of it is confirmed by EA or BioWare, and the game was cancelled along with the studio.

The details landed a day after a trailer for the game surfaced. A Reddit user posted the roughly two-minute clip on r/masseffect on 22 October, and Video Games Chronicle reports that Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier confirmed on Bluesky that it’s a real trailer of the game BioWare was developing until its closure. The trailer is a cinematic, not gameplay. According to TechPowerUp, 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.

The story Dantics describes

Dantics says the game is set more than 600 years after the Reaper War. His X post lists a customisable N7 agent as the lead, a “cross between John Wick and James Bond” rather than a “walking gun rack”. Shepard’s legacy is “preserved, regardless of your ending”, he says, which sidesteps the question of which ending is canon.

The galaxy he describes is a tense stalemate, not a war. Gamer Rant summarises his account: humanity, the krogan, batarians and other species form one alliance, the traditional Council races form another, and the Geth emerge as a third superpower. In place of another Reaper-style invasion there’s a “galactic Cold War” with a shadowy adversary. Dantics also lists Geth-built megastructures and connections between the Milky Way and Andromeda. MP1st says the villain’s identity and species are still unknown. Playfront reports that Dantics also describes Liara as a matriarch.

How it would have played

On gameplay, Dantics describes missions that were handcrafted, as in the original trilogy, but with more freedom in how you finish them. Gamer Rant says he compares that to the Hitman series. The protagonist’s implanted experimental tech is what drives it. Dantics claims it lets players see through walls, identify electronic systems, hack equipment and remotely trigger environmental hazards. MP1st and Gamer Rant also relay claims of “brutal” close-up executions, and MP1st says romance wasn’t being sanitised.

He frames the project as fan service on purpose. Destructoid quotes Dantics as saying: “From what I saw, BioWare was making Mass Effect for us, the fans, not for people who don’t exist.”

How far along was it?

That question is disputed. TechPowerUp reports that EA’s internal memo described the game as being in early development, and around 50 of the 400 jobs EA is cutting were tied to it. The Gamer says Dantics claims the game was “a lot further in development” than BioWare’s messaging suggested. A Reddit user claiming to be an EA employee made a similar claim about the trailer, though TechPowerUp calls that source “questionable at best”. In November 2025, BioWare also assured fans that “EA remains committed” to the next Mass Effect.

There’s no sign the game will return in any form. VGC reports that a Mass Effect TV series is “still in production” despite the closure, so the franchise carries on away from games for now.