Highlights
- N7 Day remains an important day for Mass Effect fans, providing them with teasers and clues about the next game in the series.
- The recent teaser trailer depicts a mysterious character in new N7 armor, sparking speculation about their identity and role in the upcoming game.
- Clues hidden in the content, such as the word “Epsilon,” suggest that it may be the subtitle of the next Mass Effect game, which is still in pre-production.
Over the years, November 7 has become a sacred day for Mass Effect fans. N7 Day isn’t only about community content and celebration, it’s also tended to be the only day of the year BioWare teases information about the next Mass Effect game.
This year has been no exception with the release of a very brief teaser trailer, some cryptic hints from franchise director Mike Gamble and a new page on EA.com that potentially gives us the name of the next game.
The teaser, simply entitled ‘N7 Day 2023’, depicts a feminine-looking person walking down a hallway outfitted in new N7 armour. They turn and look at the camera before drawing a pistol and striding out into a dusty atmosphere.
Theories as to who this character is range from Commander Shepherd turned into a virtual intelligence, to Liara T’Soni to a new player character completely.
Next, we have Gamble’s blog post. “What happened to everyone you know and love in the games? Who really died? Who had kids with whom? What does a baby Volus sound like? What about all the galaxies? The endings! What the heck is going on with our Asari scientist-turned-Shadowbroker? What about S— [presumably Shepherd] never mind…you get the idea. And of course, to those questions, there are answers, but you’ll have to wait to hear them,” he teased.
We already know from past N7 Days that Liara will return in the series’ next instalment, along with the Geth. Gamble’s “S—…” has fans speculating that there’s a chance that Shepherd survived the events of the trilogy and may make a return.
What happened to everyone you know and love in the games? Who really died? Who had kids with whom? What does a baby Volus sound like? What about all the galaxies? The endings! What the heck is going on with our Asari scientist-turned-Shadowbroker? What about S— [presumably Shepherd] never mind…you get the idea.
The rest of the post pertains to upcoming Mass Effect merchandise and content but with hidden binary spread throughout. If one were to write this out, it would spell out ‘Epsilon’. The predominant theory is that Epsilon is the subtitle of the next Mass Effect game.
Epsilon is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet and the next Mass Effect will be the fifth game in the series. Epsilon is also one of the rejected original titles for the series that would become known as Mass Effect, as pointed out by Eurogamer.
After the Epsilon discovery, the URL EA.com/games/mass-effect/epsilon was tested and a new page was found. The page contains the below message and an embed of the teaser video.
- /////SECONDARY ENCRYPTION DETECTED
- /////VJBSVU-XXXX-XXXXXXXX
- /////ANDROMEDA DISTRESS SIGNAL DETECTED
- /////YEAR SENT: [REDACTED]
- /////AUDIO TRANSCRIPT: ALTHOUGH THEY SHOULD KNOW BY NOW NOT TO UNDERESTIMATE HUMAN [REDACTED]
Andromeda is referenced, and the final line is the transmission sent by Liara T’Soni that was teased during N7 Day 2022, with the redacted word being ‘defiance’.
Mass Effect 5 is still currently in pre-production as BioWare is primarily focused on the upcoming Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Unfortunately, this means we probably won’t know the next piece of the puzzle until N7 Day 2024.
Mass Effect Trilogy
- Franchise
- Mass Effect
- Developer(s)
- BioWare
- Publisher(s)
- Microsoft
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Third-Person Shooter
