Mass Effect: Andromeda Gets New Teaser Ahead of N7 Day

There’s a new Mass Effect game on the way, and though we’ve seen some short snippets and had little bits of info leaked, EA and Bioware have been rather tight-lipped on the big details around the game’s story, new characters and races, and what gameplay will look like. But Bioware released a new teaser yesterday hinting at a big reveal coming up soon.

Positioned as an ad for the Andromeda Initiative—the in-game expedition to leave the Milky Way and explore the next closest galaxy, Andromeda—the teaser is a call for “the brave, the inquisitive, [and] the trailblazers of the human race” to join today and “challenge yourself to go further.”

The teaser ends with the text, “Orientation begins Nov. 7,” which, for Mass Effect fans, is known as N7 Day, named for the iconic emblem Commander Shepard wears on nearly all of her armor in the first trilogy of games.

Even though we know we’re getting more info in a little less than a week, that hasn’t stopped fans from going over the trailer with a fine-toothed comb looking for any details about the forthcoming game.

Perhaps the biggest information given in the teaser is the line, “The time has come to prepare ourselves for a future beyond the Milky Way, a future that begins 600 years from where we stand in a time and place among unknown stars and unseen dangers.” Assuming this ad and the Andromeda Initiative began shortly after the events of Mass Effect 3 that means Mass Effect: Andromeda will take place sometime around 2800.

And if the teaser is set sometime soon after ME 3, it seems the Earth is pretty good shape considering the massive battle at the end of that game. This might be our only look at Earth in the new trilogy, since the game will take place so far away and won’t address any of the possible endings from ME 3, per Eurogamer.

The presumably Andromeda-bound ship seen at the end looks vaguely Citadel-like and since the Citadel was left in Earth’s orbit at the end of ME 3, it’s possible that it’s been retrofitted for the long journey to another galaxy.

If you do follow the link in the video and sign up for the Andromeda Initiative with your email, you’ll get a message that says, “Thanks for signing up as a Mass Effect insider. You’ll now receive all of the latest and greatest news and info at this e-mail address.” Whether “recruits” will actually receive any unique information or if it’s just a creative way to get people to sign up for a newsletter has yet to be seen. You can sign up for the Andromeda Initiative here.

Mass Effect: Andromeda will be released in spring of 2017 (perhaps March) for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Hopefully, we’ll be getting a definitive release date on N7 Day.