One would imagine that the lead developer of a game such as Mass Effect 4 would only be thinking of high-end, triple-A franchises and IPs, right? Well, that’s not always the case, and sometimes big people consider smaller platforms too. Not that social media gaming is small, mind you. We’re of course talking about Aaryn Flynn, a big name at Bioware, a name that’s heavily involved with anything Mass Effect related.
We know that social media games can become viral. But what if an already popular game franchise suddenly went social and casual? You would not expect Mass Effect to be considered for such a transition, yet the idea has crossed the minds of some industry leaders. The announcement that Facebook has acquired Oculus Rift for $2 billion caused quite a stir in the gaming community. Some people support the decision and the change, while others don’t. Minecraft creator Notch for instance isn’t a huge fan of developing games for a Facebook-owned platform. Bioware heads don’t seem to be as drastic however, as Bioware Montreal head Aaryn Flynn has recently highlighted. If you don’t know who Aaryn Flynn is, well, you should consider him to be the big-boss behind projects such as Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect 4.
Personally, I am officially excited to perhaps one day make a Facebook game!
— Aaryn Flynn (@AarynFlynn) March 25, 2014
Aaryn Flynn seems to be excited about the prospects the Oculus Rift offers, and the Mass Effect 4 lead is opened to the idea of potentially bringing the Mass Effect franchise to Facebook one day. MEVille anyone? Obviously, the statement caused some sort of an outburst from the hardened Mass Effect fans, who are only concerned with Mass Effect 4 being a game worthy of the franchise and are revolted by the idea of a Mass Effect social game. Still, this statement should be taken with a grain of salt, as this was nothing more than an idea from Aaryn Flynn, not an actual announcement or plan.
Seeing that Aaryn Flynn is interested in the Oculus Rift technology is good news however. It’s doubtful Mass Effect 4 will already be utilizing VR, but it’s not a far-fetched thought to consider that a potential Mass Effect 5 could be based on the Oculus Rift (or Sony’s Project Morhpeus, for that matter) technology. Rest easy though, there’s no chance in hell that Mass Effect 4 will be a Facebook game, at least not before the game is released on the platforms that should normall get it, mainly the PC, the Playstation 4 and Xbox One.