The Mass Effect trilogy is getting remastered in BioWare's Legendary Edition

It’s not a full remake, but it’ll do.

Electronic Arts and developer BioWare have announced that a remastered version of the classic Mass Effect trilogy will launch on consoles and PC in 2021. The bundle is titled Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, containing Mass Effect (2007), Mass Effect 2 (2010) and Mass Effect 3 (2012). Each of these games could use quite the facelift, and they’re getting one. 

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will include all of the DLC previously packaged with these three games, plus all promo weapons, armours and packs. All of these and the story campaigns will be remastered and optimised for 4K Ultra HD, across the entire trilogy. 

Studio GM of BioWare Casey Hudson penned the announcement, saying:

For many months now, our team at BioWare has been hard at work updating the textures, shaders, models, effects, and technical features of three enormous games. Our goal was not to remake or reimagine the original games, but to modernize the experience so that fans and new players can experience the original work in its best possible form. It’s been amazing to see the adventures of Commander Shepard take on new life in super-sharp resolution, faster framerates, and beautiful visual enhancements.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will launch in Spring 2021 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The game will also come with, “forward compatibility and targeted enhancements,” on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. You’ll have to wait for specific details for its next-gen versions however, as BioWare has promised more details to come in 2021. 

The team also announced that an all-new Mass Effect game is currently in development, and revealed artwork for the title. BioWare calls it, “the next chapter of the Mass Effect universe,” and stated that, “a veteran team,” is working on it. The latest entry in the Mass Effect series, Mass Effect: Andromeda, was poorly received at launch due to an insane amount of technical issues, so there’s nowhere to go but up for the franchise. 

Electronic Arts has been quite the hot streak with remasters recently, having previously announced remastered versions of Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Command & Conquer. BioWare is currently hard at work on Dragon Age 4, and rebooting the ill-fated looter-shooter Anthem. 

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