Despite BioWare's on-going project Dragon Age: Dreadwolf set for release next year, Mass Effect fans have been enduring one of the longest information droughts since the franchise's beginning in 2007. One single tweet this week, however, was enough to ignite the enthusiasm of the fandom. "Anyone creating games with #MetaHumans in Unreal Engine 5? What are some challenges you would like us to tackle in future releases?" was the question posed by Epic Games' character technology director Chris Evans on Twitter.

Michael Gamble, project director and executive producer at BioWare for the next Mass Effect game, responded with a gif of Mordin, a favorite character from Mass Effect. This brief interaction was enough to spark renewed interest in Mass Effect 5, even though the next iteration still seems to be years away. And from this exchange, it can be inferred that the forthcoming game will likely use Unreal Engine 5's MetaHuman tech. This technology aids developers in creating 3D characters and models quickly and efficiently, and it is hoped that the characters of Mass Effect 5 will benefit from it.

Back in November 2020, BioWare announced the next Mass Effect on N7 Day, with little else to go on other than a released image. In November 2021, a Mass Effect poster was released showing a ship landing on a planet near a crater that resembled the Geth, an AI species from the original trilogy. Speculation arose about a potential party size for the new game, based on the depicted characters exiting the ship. The latest tease came on N7 Day in 2022 when BioWare released concept art seemingly showing a mass relay being built or rebuilt. All of these slight hints continue to fuel the anticipation for any updates coming this N7 Day, even as parent company EA has cut 50 jobs at BioWare recently.

Upon the announcement of the layoffs, BioWare's General Manager Gary McKay stated that this move was part of a "long-term vision" to make the studio "more agile and more focused". He assured continuity of the fourth major Dragon Age game and maintained that the next Mass Effect was still in pre-production. Until then, fans can only speculate and get excited over the potential use of MetaHuman in the upcoming Mass Effect release.

Twitter users have been excitable and hopeful about this possibility, with @baundiesel tweeting "The idea of Metahuman possibly being used for the next ME is so exciting to me." and other users expressing their anticipation and excitement in similar sentiments.

The original news was authored by Wesley Yin-Poole, the UK News Editor for IGN. He can be reached at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.