Mass Effect 3, despite being critically acclaimed and liked by gamers, faced a severe backlash due to its ending. There was a lot of debate regarding the ending, but BioWare had eventually kneeled to the fans by releasing extended versions of the game’s three endings. This was an industry first, and it’s still seen as an intrusion into artistic license by many.

Keeping all this in mind, BioWare learned a lot of lessons, and they’re going to heed them for their future titles. Casey Hudson, the game’s executive producer, noted how they had “underestimated how attached people [had] become to the characters.” He adds that the excellent Citadel DLC was born out of the desire to respect this love.

“We’d never imagined that as we ended the trilogy, all people would want to do was spend more time with the characters, sort of bathing in the afterglow—getting closure and just having some time to live in the universe that they fought to save,” he said. “This, and many other learnings, will be built into our future games.”

This sentiment is echoed by producer Mike Gamble, who commented that fans’ feelings about the characters were “just as strong as [BioWare’s]”.

As it stands right now, BioWare has only hinted that the next installment in the series is in the works. The company has recently been gauging interest in various aspects like timeline and multiplayer, so it remains to be seen what the future holds for us.