It doesn't matter whether or not Commander Shepard destroyed the Reapers in Mass Effect 3. It doesn't even matter if the character chose to synthesize organics and synthetics.
None of it matters because nothing that happened in the first Mass Effect trilogy will have any bearing on the new title in the franchise, Mass Effect Andromeda.
BioWare confirmed with Eurogamer that Mass Effect: Andromeda is not just a new title in the series, but also a completely new story with new characters and a new setting. That means that what happened in the first three games won't affect events in the new title at all.
However, that doesn't mean that the new game and the previous trilogy aren't connected, although Andromeda begins its own story arc.
"We acknowledged it in the endings of Mass Effect 3 and I think that's where we want to leave it for now," BioWare studio head Aaryon Flynn said. "We want this to be a new story and it would be very hard to say it's a new story but also that you need to understand how [the past trilogy] ended."
That means that Mass Effect players won't have to worry about importing their old save games, which will probably come as a relief to those who played on previous-generation consoles.
Yet, what does this mean for Andromeda? Gamers haven't heard a lot about the new chapter in the franchise yet, but this suggests that events in the new game will probably happen outside of the Milky Way. Also, considering how hard it is to travel even within a galaxy in the first three games, it's likely that events in one galaxy would never actually affect another.
However, BioWare has thrown in some familiar character races for fans of the original trilogy.
"There's a coalition [of Milky Way races]," Flynn said. "We needed to find a way to make sure certain species you're familiar with come along with you on your journey to meet new ones. As in the tradition of Mass Effect, there will be certain people working together happily, and certain people working together less happily."
Fans, though, have concerns that Andromeda didn't make a bigger appearance at this year's E3. Still, BioWare assures everyone that it still plans on releasing the title in spring 2017, and that it will have more to show from the game in November.
