Mass Effect: Universe Dev Explains How World State Would Have Worked

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Might Not Have World States, But Mass Effect Universe Would've Published Oct 25, 2026, 10:15 AM EDT George is the Lead News Editor for TheGamer, and has been working in the industry since 2021 after graduating from the University of South Wales with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. He has also previously written for RPG Site, WhatCulture, and PlayStation Lifestyle. George is an expert on platformers, action games, and fighters, but tends to play as many releases as possible. This hands-on experience lets him dive into gaming communities and follow the latest trends. Some of the games George has extensively covered first-hand include Dead Rising, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, Assassin's Creed Shadows, and Ninja Gaiden 4. Sign in to your TheGamer account Mass Effect franchise technical director Romain Toutain has revealed that the cancelled Universe would have let “all the choices” from the original trilogy be taken into account. The last week has been incredibly rough for Mass Effect fans. Not only did series developer BioWare get suddenly shut down after already going through the wringer with EA, but the next big game in the series got cancelled along with it. That was bad enough when we didn’t know much about the next Mass Effect, but it's got even worse as more details have been shared. Shortly after BioWare’s closure was announced, a trailer for Mass Effect: Universe was shared with the world, giving us a first real look at what could have been. We’ve heard plenty about Universe since then from those who worked on the game, but a recent stream from one of the series' leads has revealed some very interesting details about how it would have tied to the OG trilogy. Mass Effect: Universe Would Have Learned From The Veilguard’s Mistakes BioWare Wanted Players To Have “Absolute Autonomy” So earlier, my brother was watching Octobinz (Romain Toutain)'s livestream on Twitch. He was the Technical Director on Mass Effect Universe, so I wanted to share some bits he discussed. As he speaks french, I added subtitles to make it more accessible for everyone! #MassEffect #MassEffectUniverse — ✨Lou🖤🤍💜 (@loustica-lucia.bsky.social) 2026-10-24T22:43:56.560Z As reported by Kotaku, Mass Effect franchise technical director Romain Toutain recently went live on Twitch and shared his thoughts and insights on the trailer for Universe. Bluesky user loustica-lucia.bsky.social translated his comments, which confirmed many of the details that have leaked out, like the still-unnamed protagonist being customisable. Perhaps the most interesting part of Toutain’s stream is when he talks about how Universe would have implemented the choices that players made as Shepard in the original trilogy. Toutain notes that players could “generate” timelines based on those decisions, and that “all of the choices” were “taken into account”. BioWare put a lot of work into Universe’s in-game choices too, as Toutain explained that the game would make sure you can complete any mission, even if the person you needed for it is somehow dead. Toutain explains that one of the reasons the cancelled game was called Universe is because it had “so many choices that you could plug your saves together to create parallel universes”. The franchise director sadly doesn’t explain exactly what that means, but it sounds like players could pick and choose between all the big decisions to have their own distinct world. One watcher asked if it was similar to Inquisition’s Dragon Age Keep, which Toutain says was “kinda” the case, but on a much grander scale. It’s a far cry from The Veilguard’s controversial and very minimal world state, which shows just how much BioWare was listening to fans and making sure the next Mass Effect didn’t make the same mistakes. Mass Effect Released November 20, 2007 ESRB M For Mature 17+ due to Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence Developer(s) BioWare Publisher(s) Electronic Arts Engine Unreal Engine 3