‘Mass Effect 4’ gameplay: New job opening confirms BioWare will use Unreal Engine 5

Long-time fans of the “Mass Effect” franchise received good news recently. A new job listing confirms that its next main series installment, dubbed “Mass Effect 4,” will be built using Unreal Engine 5.

BioWare producer Brenon Holmes recently shared an active job listing, where the studio is looking for an Associate Technical Director. “BioWare is hiring talented programmers with [Unreal Engine] 4/5 experience,” Holmes wrote. This is reiterated in the job listing as one of the requirements listed is having experience in “full cycle AAA game development” with modern game engines, specifically with Unreal Engine.

Gaming journalist and well-known leaker Jeff Grubb later reiterated that this confirms the studio will be using Unreal Engine for “Mass Effect 4.” Grubb added that a “handful of sources” have already told him of BioWare’s choice to go back to using Unreal Engine, particularly Unreal Engine 5, for the upcoming game.

The original “Mass Effect” trilogy was all developed using Unreal Engine, so it was surprising to many fans when developers announced they were going to use DICE’s Frostbite game engine to make “Mass Effect Andromeda.” Frostbite was created to be used on first-person shooter games, especially for the “Battlefield” franchise, explaining why the switch came as a shock to avid fans. TweakTown pointed out that the change may have also made the development of “Mass Effect Andromeda” more challenging for the developers because they had to recreate combat animations, UI, and other game systems.

The hype around “Mass Effect 4” development using Unreal Engine 5 is understandable. So far, the demos released for the new engine have hinted that future games have much more realistic images than the currently available AAA games. And it should be something to look forward to for an RPG title like “Mass Effect,” which also takes place in an alien setting with rich environments.

For now, though, very little is known about the next “Mass Effect.” BioWare has yet to confirm if the next game will be a direct sequel to the trilogy or “Andromeda,” even though many fans have already been calling it “Mass Effect 4.” What appears more certain for now is that the game will not be released anytime soon.