Mass Effect 4 has an official name and release window. Mass Effect: Andromeda, announced during EA’s E3 press conference, has been announced for a Holiday 2016. It will be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
Here's the official announcement trailer, revealed during EA's E3
The reveal trailer showcases an N7-armored soldier navigating a galaxy map, readying their weapon, and heading to a planet’s surface to fight and drive the series’ notorious Mako vehicle. Much of this reveal aligns with the recent survey leaks, which suggested the next Mass Effect would take place in the Andromeda galaxy.
Here's the official press release post from BioWare about this new Mass Effect:
When we wrapped up the original Mass Effect trilogy with Mass Effect 3: Citadel in early 2013, planning and design on Mass Effect: Andromeda was already well underway. We knew we wanted to start with a foundation composed of the best parts of any Mass Effect game: exciting new worlds to discover, great characters, and intense action. At the same time, we clearly wanted to expand the definition of what you should expect from a Mass Effect game.
While we aren’t ready to go into too many details just yet, as you saw in the trailer and can tell by the name, this game is very much a new adventure, taking place far away from and long after the events of the original trilogy. You will play a human, male or female, though that’s actually not the character you saw in the trailer (more on that later). You’ll be exploring an all-new galaxy, Andromeda, and piloting the new and improved Mako you saw. And through it all, you will have a new team of adventurers to work with, learn from, fight alongside of, and fall in love with.
We built this trailer in Frostbite™, our game engine, and it represents our visual target for the final game. We are thrilled by what we’ve already been able to achieve in bringing Mass Effect to Frostbite and by putting our entire focus on PC and current gen consoles. With the time remaining in development, we’re excited about the possibility to push things even more.
Said Yanick Roy, Studio Director at BioWare Montréal.
The main character’s race remains unknown, so whether this is another human-centric story or not remains to be seen. Mass Effect: Andromeda is in development at BioWare Montreal, which has been revealing details for Andromeda for years.
Stay illusive!
I can't imagine a Mass Effect game without Commander Shepard. Hopefully they prove me wrong. Also I will miss Shepard's team! They were all awesome. And hopefully they can manage to salvage the absolute train wreck that ME3's ending ended up being.
Can't agree more. I believe the new galaxy stuff and all is a way for them to do something really different than the previous Mass Effect games. That being said, I hope they won't change too much the story and the gameplay.