But there’s nothing wrong with building on a good, existing constructed world, too.

I don’t disagree. But folks are pretending like Mass Effect is some kind of exceptionally novel or revolutionary IP. It’s really not. This is some really basic tier SciFi. You could scratch the serial numbers off the side and make “Enlarged Consequences” with no real threat of liability.

I’m just not buying that Mass Effect is a “dead end.” It’s a great setting, there’s tons to explore, and they’ve already broken away from the main trap of being stuck with Sheperd. Halo is a bit different not because they wrote themselves into a corner (which ME aid also guilty of), but that they utterly refused to leave it, amongst other things.

I mean, I don’t disagree entirely. I just think the core ideas of Mass Effect have percolated through the genre of open world space adventure game. And now we’ve got a plethora of alternatives that strike the same central cords. You don’t need the Mass Effect IP to make a successor to the game any more than you needed the Halo IP to make Destiny.

If I’m going to be sad about anything, it’s really the Dragon Age IP, which I think was cooking with something a bit more novel than “Evil Aliens Exterminate Humanity While Humans and Demi-Humans Bicker Over Politics”.

Now “Evil Dragons Exterminate Humanity While Humans and Demi-Humans Bicker Over Politics”! There’s a keeper