It’s been a year since last year’s N7 Day (or November 7^th which Mass Effect fans have co-opted as a holiday of sorts celebrating the series), where BioWare posted a teaser for a future installment in the illustrious Mass Effect franchise that they’ve been working on for years now, and now as another November 7^th has come so to has another 30-second teaser for the newest part of the world-famous RPG franchise, even revealing a brand new character design:

While this teaser is more robust than those that came before, it doesn’t give us too much to go on. An iconic musical sting from the franchise hits as a character wearing the typical Spectre colors of jet black with a red stripe down the arm that the default Commander Shepard, the main character of the franchise, made famous walks down a hallway. Though that familiar pattern isn’t on the typical sci-fi body armor that it usually features on, instead the character is wearing a sleek duster type long coat and cybernetic helmet; a departure from the series’ typical soldier-esque armored aesthetic.

From our crew to yours, happy #N7Day 💫
You can pick up your copy from @BioWareGear tomorrow!#MassEffect pic.twitter.com/WbG9jSGgQU

— BioWare (@bioware) November 7, 2023

Despite the color scheme, we don’t know if that’s Commander Shepard themselves, there are plenty of questions up in the air regarding this newest entry of the franchise. Many of those questions revolving around the state of BioWare themselves, having laid off 50 workers just this past August with many unionized QA workers on BioWare’s Dragon Age: Dreadwolf project also being laid off in October. Dreadwolf itself has been pushed back indefinitely with no clear status on how the project is going.

In fact, the state of BioWare is so tumultuous that, instead of celebrating N7 day as many of the Mass Effect fandom did, those same QA workers who were laid off last month are going to picket in front of BioWare’s office in Edmonton, Alberta as reported by Polygon as they protest their treatment by BioWare, but this isn’t a one-sided affair. The workers who were laid off in August started the #N7SeveranceDay hashtag with an accompanying account to promote treating employees better, and adding more fuel to the fire that is BioWare’s reputation among workers within the gaming industry.

We love #MassEffect, but this #N7Day, we’d also like to remind #BioWare of the importance of treating your crew right. So join us in having a little fun with #N7SeveranceDay while expressing support for all the folks #BioWare laid off this year… (1/2) pic.twitter.com/y0w5lh8Vho

— N7SeveranceDay (@N7SeveranceDay) November 7, 2023

Still though, this teaser for the next entry in the Mass Effect franchise is a sign of life at least, and many Mass Effect fans are sure to be excited to give the series another chance despite the poor reception of Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect: Andromeda as well as BioWare’s reputation as of late. While BioWare themselves have been in a rather poor position for the past decade, especially in these past few years, it’s never too late to turn a ship, or a spaceship, around.