Mass Effect 5 Teased With a Mysterious Piece of Concept Art on N7 Day, BioWare Reveals Hidden Message [IGN]

A video of the concept art that slightly moves was released on Twitter alongside a short message from BioWare. If you really want to take a closer look, you can also download it in HD.

“Happy #N7Day from across the stars! 💫 We found this interesting footage you may want to 🔍 a bit more closely,” BioWare wrote on its account.

Thank you to all the agents who decoded the footage. Here’s a clean transmission 👀 https://t.co/iADrTHnU6s pic.twitter.com/ALNBNNM05a

— Mass Effect (@masseffect) November 7, 2022

Fans quickly deciphered the message hidden within, in which Liara T’Soni can be heard saying, “The Council will be furious! Although, they should know by now not to underestimate human defiance!”

Mike Gamble, the project director of the next Mass Effect game, also shared a few words on the future of the series.

“In the nearly 15 years since the release of the first Mass Effect, the biggest reason we still love working on it is the warmth, dedication, and passion of this community,” Gamble wrote. “There are some of you who have been with us through everything. We’ve grown together, sacrificed Ashley together, (Editor’s Note: Or Kaidan, Mike! We all make different choices.) faced difficulties together…and laughed until our Faces Were Tired…together! And for those of you who are new to Mass Effect (thanks, Legendary Edition!), welcome! I can promise that many years of fun, adventures, and characters you’ll fall in love with are still ahead.

“Regardless of when you joined us, through four games and more expansions, I can say with certainty that we’re in this because of you, and every N7 Day is a wonderful reminder of that. As we look forward, each week is a fun and exciting challenge for the team. We love bringing this universe to life, and although there’s much more we want to share with you, that’ll have to be for another time.

“For now, there is something we want you to have a look at. We’ve intercepted some strange footage from one of the monitoring stations in known space. It could be nothing, but…”

Following the message, the above image was revealed.

Spoilers ahead for the ending of Mass Effect 3.

This image very well may be an indication that the Destroy ending from Mass Effect 3 will be the canon ending going forward. In that ending, Shepard was able to destroy the Reaper threat, but in doing so all the mass relays — the piece of Reaper tech that allowed for easy travel around space — were destroyed.

The image could hint that they are being rebuilt with new, current tech as the Reapers would be gone under the Destroy ending. The first teaser for this new Mass Effect game did appear to include Liara, so it would make sense for this to be a continuation of such of this story if not a direct sequel.

Another possibility is humans or another species have discovered how to create mass relays of their own. Really, anything is possible!

There is text accompanying the image as well, and it says, “Vacuum-doc Relay Construction Record / Monitoring Station Operated by Green Dagger Ltd. Property of Deepspace Dhow SAV / Ship Captain: Sub-Navarch Soa’Rhal Zhilian-Jones.”

If we try to break down the text, we come to learn that this monitoring station is operated by Green Dagger Ltd., which is a company in the Mass Effect universe we haven’t met yet. We also aren’t familiar with the name of the ship captain.

For more on Mass Effect, check out the poster that was revealed for last year’s N7 Day and the announcement of the new game from The Game Awards 2020.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.