Recently, Mass Effect: Andromeda producer Michael Gamble spoke with website Stevivor to talk about the upcoming BioWare release, PS4 Pro, Microsoft’s Project Scorpio and answered the possibility of Mass Effect: Andromeda coming to the Nintendo Switch.
Firstly, Gamble spoke about the number of improvements we can expect to see in Mass Effect: Andromeda which, of course, is the first Mass Effect game on current-gen consoles. One of the main things being the way you travel around the Andromeda galaxy has been improved from the original trilogy’s 2D Galaxy Map. As Gamble says:
“In Andromeda, that’s totally different. You look up the windscreen of the Tempest, and space is rendered in front of you 180 degrees. If you go to the back of the Tempest, you’ll see that the star that’s behind the ship is actually there, reflecting light beautifully on the conference room in the Tempest. Then, as you fly to a different area with a black hole, you see that effects things differently. I’m kind of nerding out visually on it, but next-gen allows us to do all that kind of stuff, and do really cool things that, for players who care about that stuff, it’s all technically correct.
“It allows us to do amazing alien worlds with two suns, and weird blue moons, and all sorts of cool stuff. Yeah, I mean, hopefully when you guys play, you’ll agree.”
This sounds like a really good example of a little change that story-wise might not make much, if any, difference but will add a whole lot of clever-style and stunning visuals to the game which can only really be a good thing – that is unless they have gone for style over substance which I would not want to see coming from my favorite game franchise. I would rather see a 2D galaxy map and more thrown into the way the game plays than how it looks, but if this is just the beautiful icing on the tastiest game cake of 2017.
Of course with Mass Effect: Andromeda having been in development since Mass Effect 3 was completed, the game will have been targeted for the PS4 and Xbox One and further improvements for the current-gen and a half with the PS4 Pro and Project Scorpio might not have been included in BioWare’s scope for the development of Mass Effect: Andromeda and there might be some good news on the horizon for PS4 Pro players.
“In the world of PS Pro, we do similar things where we say, ‘Okay, what are the strengths of the console, and how can we optimise to make that experience best for players?’ In terms of PS Pro, we’ll probably talk more technical about that in January or February,”
However, the same can’t really be said for Project Scorpio, especially with its expected release date of Christmas 2017 being a good 9 months (estimate obviously) after Mass Effect: Andromeda will be released, but that doesn’t mean to say that Scorpio won’t be getting anything additional.
“For Scorpio, we have absolutely no plans right now…You never know what’ll happen after that.”
Finally, word on a possible Mass Effect: Andromeda release for Nintendo Switch:
“Yeah, not right now, no…We’re not planning on it. If the Switch launches and everyone’s just yammering for Mass Effect, who knows. We never want to close doors like that.”
So for now that’s a firm no, but from what Gamble has said, there could well be a Nintendo Switch compatible version of Mass Effect: Andromeda if there is a high enough demand for it. Personally, I can’t see it happening, but the world of video games can be unpredictable at best, so who knows what the future will bring.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is due for release in Spring 2017 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, with news expected to start flooding in in the coming weeks as we get closer and closer to the expected launch window.
Will you be getting Mass Effect: Andromeda? What platform will you be playing it on? Would you want to see it come to Nintendo Switch? Let us know in the comments below, the RGM Forums or on Twitter. If you like what you’ve read then feel free to share this article on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest or Reddit using the buttons available!
