It was recently reported that Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is apparently aiming for a 2027 release, and for several strange reasons, that brings Mass Effect to mind. I understand the two games seemingly share very little beyond stars, space, and a heap of ambition. But for anyone still holding out for a new Mass Effect (like myself), that 2027 target is a subtle reminder that the gaming genre that BioWare helped define looks likely to spend next year thriving everywhere but there.
As sad as that statement seems, the fact is that the next Mass Effect is predicated on a six-year-old teaser and a whole lot of subsequent silence. Yet 2027 is seemingly filled with several separate sci-fi experiences: Exodus, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, and now—if reports from leaker NateTheHate ring true—Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Between them, these games might make the wait for Shepard’s successor feel less like a famine and more like being told to pace yourself at a buffet.
Mass Effect 5 Is Still Mostly a Promise
That’s not to say anticipation for the next Mass Effect doesn’t exist, but since it was announced at The Game Awards in December 2020, a single teaser and a trickle of N7 Day breadcrumbs are all that fans have had to go off of. That sole teaser showed Liara amid what looked like Reaper wreckage, stumbling across a shard of N7 armor on a frozen world, and it sent fans spiraling into theories about a return to the original trilogy’s aftermath. But beyond that, here’s the sum-total of what we officially know: BioWare has confirmed the game is single-player, and that’s about it.
What fans do actually know about the development process isn’t great news either, as reports in early 2026 suggested BioWare leadership was searching for a new production director after the layoffs that trailed Dragon Age: The Veilguard. What’s more, EA also had a roughly $55 billion buyout by a Saudi-led group in late 2025, and Mass Effect was a no-show at Summer Game Fest 2026, something franchise lead Michael Gamble waved off with a rather blunt “just busy workin.” At this point, it’s still difficult to see the game’s foundations as anything other than shifting sand.
So, there’s still no release window for Mass Effect 5 (if that’s what it’s even going to be called), and realistically, the next real update won’t come until N7 Day, so fans must take inventory of what they can hope for. The good news there is that next year is filling up with games in the genre Mass Effect used to own—and Exodus and The Expanse: Osiris Reborn look to be directly inspired by it. That may not replace the spot Shepard holds in the heart, but it does mean the space-RPG shelf won’t sit empty while fans wait.
These three games aren’t interchangeable; only two are true Mass Effect-likes while the third, Intergalactic, is more of a genre cousin—but given how bare the table has been for years, even a cousin showing up to the reunion counts for something.
Osiris Reborn Looks Most Likely to Scratch the Mass Effect Itch
Right now, Owlcat’s 2027 adaptation of The Expanse seems like the most literal answer to “what if someone just made another great game like Mass Effect,” and that sounds more reductive than it should; Owlcat has been open about Mass Effect‘s inspiration. Osiris Reborn casts players as a custom Pinkwater Security mercenary who assembles a crew to take on a story that spans roughly from the first novel through the middle of the show’s third season. It’s got cover-based third-person combat, romanceable companions, heaps of player choice, and it lands in spring 2027, on Game Pass day one.
There’s still no release window for Mass Effect 5 (if that’s what it’s even going to be called), and realistically, the next real update won’t come until N7 Day, so fans must take inventory of what they can hope for.
For the expectant Mass Effect fan, the pitch is nearly perfect on paper. Many previews were positive, and while a closed beta that opened in April 2026 did draw a more mixed reception, Owlcat has been visibly responding to that feedback, so there’s a runway to sort it out before launch. Even with the speed wobble there, though, this is the one game of the three mentioned whose structure most closely mirrors the original Mass Effect trilogy.
Exodus Comes From the Same BioWare Lineage
While Osiris Reborn is working off of Mass Effect‘s blueprint, Archetype Entertainment’s Exodus is evolving it while maintaining a healthy dose of Mass Effect in the vein. Founded by BioWare veteran James Ohlen and staffed with talent including original Mass Effect lead writer Drew Karpyshyn, Archetype’s debut title is an original sci-fi RPG set 40,000 years in the future. It sees players take the role of Jun Aslan, an otherwise totally customizable salvager-turned-Traveler, and the game’s signature hook is time dilation—every faster-than-light trip means years or whole generations lost back home.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
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It’s a bit more action-oriented than the original Mass Effect formula called for, at least from what fans can tell so far, but Exodus‘ time dilation hook and Karpyshyn’s stated allergy to bloat is reassuring; Archetype has talked up a tighter, choice-dense experience over the map-clearing marathons the genre drifted into. The risk is obvious—this is a debut studio, and the last “ex-BioWare makes a new sci-fi thing” pitch was Anthem. Nonetheless, the lineage here is very much worth keeping an eye on, and an early 2027 window puts it first in line to fill the void.
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Is Yet Another Sci-Fi Game
Comparatively, Naughty Dog’s first brand-new IP since 2013 doesn’t really look all that similar, but the developmental pedigree and PlayStation bankroll speak for themselves. Not much is known beyond the premise: bounty hunter Jordan A. Mun, played by Tati Gabrielle, is stranded on the remote planet Sempiria and hunting a crime syndicate, but it’s been in development for roughly six years, it’s a PS5 exclusive, and it looks every bit the premium spectacle you’d expect from the studio that gave players the Uncharted franchise. Again, the one thing Intergalactic isn’t at this point is Mass Effect-like.
Intergalactic is more of Naughty Dog’s bread and butter: a cinematic, largely authored action-adventure—not a build-your-Shepard RPG. So it won’t scratch the exact itch Exodus and Osiris Reborn are likely to. That said, what it offers instead is proof of how much top-tier sci-fi is landing in 2027—provided the leak holds, since NateTheHate’s claim is just that, not an announcement.
The Wait for Mass Effect 5 Is Officially Easier to Stomach
Ultimately, each of these games offers up plenty of reasons to be excited about the year ahead. Yet I’d be lying if I said that they erase the specific ache of wanting more Mass Effect—the Reapers, the Council, Shepard’s ghost hanging over the Milky Way. A licensed Expanse RPG and an original Archetype universe scratch the surface of that itch without touching its center, but that distinction is of little comfort when the heart wants what it wants.
Still, it’s no crime to try and be optimistic about an industry that seems to be perpetually on fire, so the fact that 2027 has three distinct opportunities to provide sci-fi-starved players with some solid hours spent in Exodus, Osiris Reborn, or Intergalactic is appreciated. At the very least, it’s the year when the sci-fi drought finally breaks, whatever BioWare does or doesn’t do. And hey, on the bright side—that might be enough to take the pressure off Mass Effect 5 in a way that gives BioWare plenty of room to cook.
