Mass Effect 4 Isn't Called Mass Effect: Origins

BioWare hasn't announced the official title for Mass Effect 4 yet. However, they were quick to shoot down another rumored name for the game.

A report published this past week said that the game is called Mass Effect: Origins. Yanick Roy, head of BioWare Montreal, said on Twitter yesterday that this gossip is wrong:

Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but Mass Effect: Origins never rang true to me. BioWare already used the Origins subtitle for the first Dragon Age. It seemed unlikely that they'd reuse the word for another one of their games.

This is the second false title shot down by Roy this spring. The previous debunked title was Mass Effect: Contact. That rumor was capitalizing on speculation that the game could take place during the First Contact War - even though that wouldn't work that well.

When Roy shot down the Contact rumor in May, he said that Mass Effect 4 still doesn't have a title yet. That might be still be the case.

The reason that these rumored titles got so much traction is that we're in the speculation-crazed, pre-E3 period. Everything seems slightly more possible in the weeks and days before the convention. Mass Effect 4 speculation is particularly intense this year because many gamers are expecting BioWare to formally announce the game.

Roy added to this gossip with a couple other tweets this weekend. He says that he's going to be in attendance at E3 - perhaps a sign that he'll be presenting ME4 during EA's E3 press conference:

I'm hoping for a Mass Effect 4 announcement too but these tweets don't get me that excited. His attendance at E3 doesn't necessarily mean anything. There are going to be plenty of big-name developers at the show who aren't announcing their projects yet.

Like I said on Friday, I think BioWare's going to hold off on revealing Mass Effect 4 this week. They have Dragon Age: Inquisition launching this fall and want to give that game as much of the spotlight as they can. I think that an ME4 reveal would upstage Inquisition a bit. If BioWare's not concerned about that, though, then who am I to argue?