Austin Wintory Reveals Early Music Sketches He Wrote for Mass Effect 5

Just days ago, EA closed the doors on BioWare, the studio behind Mass Effect and Dragon Age. The closure also ended development of the fifth Mass Effect entry, first revealed back in 2020. While the industry absorbs the aftershock, acclaimed composer Austin Wintory has revealed that he had been developing a prospective score for the doomed project, and he has now made early versions of that music available to everyone.

In a thread on Bluesky, Wintory, whose credits include Journey, Sword of the Sea, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, and The Banner Saga trilogy, described Mass Effect as his “ultimate white whale” and dream assignment. He explained that for the past couple of years he had been in talks with BioWare and EA about taking on the game, and that he wrote nearly 20 minutes of music to explore the franchise’s possible future. His reasoning for releasing it was simple: he figured he might as well share it.

The composer posted a 20-minute video of eight tracks to his YouTube channel. It opens with a message detailing his relationship with BioWare and EA. He says that, over several years of conversations with people at both companies about possibly joining Mass Effect 5, he chose to surprise the team by writing and recording an enormous love letter to the series, shaped by his own vision of where it could head next.

Wintory notes that he wrote the music in 2025, at a time when he “knew nothing” about the story of Mass Effect 5, which is why he calls the pieces “narratively speculative.” He says the concept score pays direct tribute to the work of Jack Wall and Sam Hulick on the original Mass Effect, but pushes further into genuine analog synthesizers and weaves in the orchestra in a more intricate way, something he likens to the hybrid approach of The Matrix. Every track in the video is accompanied by a short message from Wintory describing what inspired it.

In the video’s description, Wintory says that learning, along with everyone else, that EA had not only scrapped the project but dissolved BioWare altogether was a profound loss. He describes how painful it has been to watch close friends lose their jobs and a cherished franchise seemingly disappear for good. He still thanks everyone at BioWare and EA’s music department for letting him dream in their sandbox, calling even that limited opportunity a privilege.

His score is the latest piece of potential Mass Effect 5 material to surface since the studio’s closure. One day after the shutdown was announced, an unreleased cinematic trailer for the canceled game, reportedly authentic, leaked online.

Source