In the span of a few hours, two promising projects from former Mass Effect developers were abruptly halted. Both were sci-fi titles that fans hoped could be reminiscent of BioWare's acclaimed RPG saga.
The first one, as reported two days ago, was Casey Hudson's Humanoid Origin studio, which had to be shut down due to a sudden lack of funding. A few hours ago, Mac Walters announced similar news (though not as dire) for his Worlds Untold studio via LinkedIn.
As you might recall, Mac Walters, a writer on Mass Effect 3 and game director on Andromeda and the Legendary Edition compilation, founded Worlds Untold last year with funding from NetEase. That's the problem: they have split with NetEase and are now seeking another partner. In the meantime, work on the project had to be stopped.
It’s hard to find the right words for this, but I wanted to share that we’ve made the very difficult decision to pause operations at Worlds Untold while we search for a new partner to help bring our vision to life. This was not a decision we made lightly—it’s been a deeply personal journey, and we’re all so proud of everything this team has built together. In the meantime, our incredible team members will be exploring new opportunities.
This is a heartbreaking moment for everyone involved, but I’m deeply grateful for the support of our partners, friends and family, and for the time we’ve had together at Worlds Untold. While we’re pausing for now, this isn’t goodbye—there’s more to come, and we look forward to sharing the next chapter with you when the time is right.
We interviewed former Mass Effect writer and director Mac Walters last year as part of the news announcement, and we learned that the project would be more of an action/adventure title rather than an RPG, more story-driven and linear.
I've done RPGs and I love them, but I wanted to do something that led with story. It's an action RPG but with a lot of story and as much as we were always able to blend that into the RPG choose-your-own-adventure style, I really like the idea of telling something that's perhaps a little bit more linear. It looks at choice and consequence and things like that but in a different light.
I was also looking at some of the games that I had enjoyed recently, whether it was The Last of Us, Uncharted, or Tomb Raider that I get kind of get swept away in. I really wanted to focus on building a game that allowed me to tell a great adventure story.
We wish Walters and all the Worlds Untold team members involved the very best.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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