Since December of last year, three very key people on the BioWare team have left for new frontiers. Two writers, David Gaider and Chris Schlerf, and director Chris Wynn, could not be more integral to the games we love. Gaider created some of my absolute favourite characters, like Zevran Arainai, Warden Alistair Theirin, Morrigan, Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast, Fenris, and Knight Commander Meredith Stannard, from the Dragon Age series. Schlerf focused mainly Halo 4 and Mass Effect: Andromeda as the lead writer. Wynn was the senior development director of the latter upcoming BioWare game. In addition, let us not forget that Casey Hudson, the creator of the Mass Effect series, left BioWare in May 2015.
With so many of the crucial members of the BioWare team leaving during the development of Mass Effect: Andromeda , the game might very well have been affected, despite a tweet from Schlerf reassuring fans otherwise. The writers that left were the leads of their team and higher, and regardless of the amazing new talent BioWare may hire, their direction for the game will be missed. However, the Mass Effect: Andromeda team likely had the game planned out in detail long before these four members left. BioWare would not be so reckless as to change their plans so close to the release date. Indeed (assuming the game is indeed coming out this year) it is likely close to finished already.
As to the Mass Effect series as a whole: writers come and go during a game’s development all the time; this situation is no different. The fluctuation of writers allows new ideas and creative directions to flourish. In addition, BioWare is one of the few game companies that listens to its fans attentively. They would never create a Mass Effect game that is nothing more than another Call of Duty with sparkly backgrounds and fancy armor. I might just throw my PlayStation out the window if that happened, but it’s not going to.
What new direction could a shifting development team take the Mass Effect series? Who knows, they could take it away from aspects of typical science fiction role-playing game. They might focus even more on character development and plot rather than combat. The game might be less about saving the galaxy, and more about diplomacy and drama. After all, a series must continue to grow and evolve, and seek to include even more character diversity and dynamic combat.
Whether or not Mass Effect: Andromeda or the series itself has been affected, I do not believe that fans should be worried. As I said, BioWare communicates very closely with its fan community, as shown by their Twitter channels and forums; they have no reason to switch audiences and suddenly ignore their fans’ input. In addition, it is easy to assume that BioWare has invested quite a bit into keeping the series alive and just as amazing it is now, given the profit margins the games provide. There is no reason for these writers leaving to be a sign of Mass Effect going downhill and causing mass panic.