EA May Build Mass Effect 5 On Unreal Rather Than Frostbite, Report Says

Electronic Arts is reportedly considering using Unreal Engine for Mass Effect 5 instead of its own proprietary Frostbite Engine. An EA job listing for a technical director for the game appeared and states that the company is looking for candidates with experience working with Unreal.

VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb has also confirmed through his own sources that EA is willing to explore every avenue when it comes to the technology for a new Mass Effect game. The primary reason for EA to stick with Frostbite is to save money, as the company would have to license Unreal from Epic Games.

Additionally, it appears that EA wants to go all in on visual technology during this new generation. When full scale development for Mass Effect 5 reportedly starts in 2023, Frostbite could potentially be far behind Unreal in terms of capability. EA could also be simply looking at Unreal to see what Frostbite needs in order to achieve what it wants for Mass Effect 5.

The original Mass Effect trilogy games were built on Unreal while Mass Effect: Andromeda was built with Frostbite. Back in 2017, Andromeda launched to average reviews as well as a myriad of technical issues. Frostbite was reportedly difficult to work with, so perhaps the potential change to Unreal engine for the next Mass Effect game shouldn't be a surprise.

Dragon Age 4 is, according to Grubb, still a Frostbite game and is expected in 2023. It follows the Frostbite-based Dragon Age: Inquisition from 2014.