Years after BioWare nearly killed one of the most iconic video game franchises with 2017's Mass Effect: Andromeda, the studio dropped Mass Effect Legendary Edition last year and all appears to be forgiven.

Now, fans have mostly forgotten about the 2017 title as they look forward to the next Mass Effect game.

Mass Effect 4 (or 5, if you want to be technical), is reportedly set following the events of the initial trilogy with its earliest teaser trailer featuring Liara T'Soni. Unfortunately, BioWare is presumably prioritizing Dragon Age 4, so fans aren't expecting any news for a while. In a surprise turn of events, the Mass Effect studio provided a small but very welcome update that's sure to delight gamers.

In a new blog post about Dragon Age 4, BioWare confirmed that Mass Effect 4 is "now early in development." In the same post, the developers added that "it's going to be a while before [BioWare] can talk about it in more detail, but [BioWare] can't wait to show you what we're working on!"

The small tidbit of news comes just months after a similar blog post about Dragon Age 4 from the studio where BioWare confirmed the team is made up of "veteran developers as well as some new, really talented people" and that "they are all actively prototyping new ideas and experiences."

In the same post, BioWare detailed that multiple stages make up its development process, starting with the "Concept and Pre-Production phases" where the team proposes, tests, and refines ideas and game mechanics. At the time, Dragon Age 4 was already in "Production", the stage in the process that involves "taking those ideas and turning them into a working game." BioWare's own words suggest that work on the Mass Effect 4 is still in the former rather than the latter.

No one is expecting to see any significant development in Mass Effect for a few years. If we assume that Dragon Age 4 is coming in late 2023, as the earlier leak suggests, then the space-facing RPG should follow suit by 2024 if not 2025.