Mass Effect 5 trailer leaks following BioWare shutdown

A trailer for a game titled Mass Effect: Universe” popped up on Reddit, and it appears to be the real deal.

by Jay Peters

Oct 22, 2026, 6:14 PM UTC

Image: u/Random_Hyabusa_Ninja

Jay Peters is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.

EA shut down BioWare yesterday and canceled the studio’s new Mass Effect game in development, but a trailer apparently representing the game was published on Reddit today.

The trailer features “in-engine footage” and uses “pre-production assets,” according to a message at the beginning of the video. The trailer focuses on an ex-soldier in a conversation with a mysterious Asari who sidles up to him at a bar, and it includes a flashback to a fight that looks like modern-day version of the gameplay from the original trilogy. It all feels very Mass Effect, with humans and aliens species mingling together, cuts to brief action sequences, and a cameo from a prominent character from the original trilogy. The trailer ends with a title: Mass Effect: Universe.

It seems like the real deal. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier says it is a “a real trailer of the Mass Effect game that BioWare was developing up until its closure yesterday.” IGN says it has verified the trailer is legitimate.

Even though this new game has been canceled, Amazon is reportedly still working on its Mass Effect TV show for Prime Video, so there may yet be more stories to see in the Mass Effect franchise.

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