In 2010, Bioware Montreal was working on a Mass Effect spin-off title. The game was called Mass Effect Team Assault and it was a competitive first-person shooter. However, work on the FPS came to a halt after only four months once the developers were thrown onto the Mass Effect 3 project.
Geoff Keighley’s iPad-exlusive app The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3 revealed this information. Here’s a snippet of what was said:
“The goal was simple, to create a standalone multiplayer experience in the Mass Effect universe that would mix the play styles of Unreal Tournament and Battlefield 1943 — and likely be released as a downloadable game.”
Bioware was pleased with the idea as it added new perspective to the Mass Effect universe and its conflicts. Although they didn’t stick with the first-person perspective or the competitive element seen in the original concept, the idea didn’t die off completely. Mass Effect Team Assault underwent many changes and eventually became the co-op mode that is attached to Mass Effect 3 today.
It is still possible that Team Assault (or some other FPS variant) could make its way out in the future since it “was put on the back burner” in order to focus on Mass Effect 3. Now that the third game has released, Bioware could decide to take another look at the competitive first-person shooter concept.
