Just this morning, we reported on EA’s intention to announce an HD remaster for release sometime this next year. The information came from EA’s financial call, which included details (and mysteries) about 14 EA games coming over the next 12 months. While reporting on the same call, VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb very plainly stated, “Oh, and that HD remaster of an EA game is the Mass Effect Trilogy. Just don’t expect that to also launch on Switch — at least not at first.” According to Grubb, the HD remaster is indeed the beloved Mass Effect trilogy being given new life on modern consoles.
Grubb doesn’t go into any details, so it’s unknown what the scope of the remastered trilogy will be. It could be anything from a simple graphical improvement to a full overhaul and rebuild of the game and its systems. “HD remaster” has taken to mean a bunch of different things over the years, changing drastically from the older HD remasters we once got in the PS3 era. There’s also some wording in the report stating “HD remake,” hinting that this might be more than a quick coat of polish for the modern gen.
Speaking of modern gen, it’s also unclear if the Mass Effect trilogy HD remake is intended to swan song the PS4 generation or introduce the PS5 generation. For all we know it could be a cross-generation title, or simply rely on backwards compatibility to work with both systems. With next-gen just over the horizon, it seems like a bad move to leave a highly anticipated and requested re-release on the consoles that are seeing sundown, so whatever the solution ends up being, we expect it to be playable on PS5 in some form or another.
Grubb is also the journalist who reported that Sony’s PS5 reveal date is set for June 4, later than most rumors and speculation put it (most wishful thinking is on May as Xbox dominates the next-gen conversation). EA Play’s digital event is set to happen on June 11, which would be a great time for the company to reveal a Mass Effect trilogy remaster/remake/reimagining/whatever it ends up being. With both events so close, it’s not much longer until we find out if Grubb’s reports are correct, but for now, these are unconfirmed.
