BioWare heads weigh in on Mass Effect MMO

The Mass Effect trilogy is coming to an end next month with the release of Mass Effect 3, but the sci-fi franchise might be just beginning.

In a new interview with Penny Arcade, BioWare founders Dr. Greg Zeschuk and Dr. Ray Muzyka sounded off on the possibility of a massively multiplayer online game set in the Mass Effect universe.

"It's daunting, but the neat thing is it would lend itself to a different type of game play. It's fun to think about," Zeschuk said. "I imagine people think it would be just like Mass Effect as it is… but there's lots of people there. It's really interesting, I don't know. It's a tough one."

Muzyka continued, saying the Mass Effect universe has a large "possibility space," or areas to which the franchise can and should extend.

"When you deliver a game, and you deliver it for a player, you have to capture what they think is the possibility space," he said. "You need to let them do everything they think they should do, and you can't block them from doing anything they think they should be able to do. You have to nail all the features and content that should be in that possibility space."

If BioWare does move forward on a Mass Effect MMO game, it would be on top of December's Star Wars: The Old Republic. That game has sold more than 2 million units and currently boasts a subscriber base of 1.7 million.

This is not the first time BioWare has talked about continuing the Mass Effect franchise. Earlier this month, BioWare's Michael Gambel said the studio has "so much to draw from" if it decides to make a new game in the series.

Mass Effect 3 is due out on March 6 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. For more on the trilogy-capping space-faring role-playing title, check out GameSpot's demo video stream.