The game, a first-person shooter called Mass Effect: Team Assault, was developed in Montreal. According to Moran, the game was similar in scale to Battlefield 1943.

However, Mass Effect: Team Assault was canceled and integrated into Mass Effect 3 due to ‘tensions’ between BioWare’s studios in Edmonton and Montreal.

“While I am not Canadian and cannot appreciate the tension between Anglophone and French speakers, the Edmonton team was quite upset about opening a studio in Montreal, ”says Maron. “The Montreal studio, which owned a large portion of Mass Effect 3, was undermined internally by Edmonton, where the Montreal studio was not represented.”

Maron says the new studio could not be “ trusted ” with the franchise according to Edmonton employees, though he says he understands that employees feared for their own survival after opening the new studio.

Eventually, Mass Effect: Team Assault in Edmonton was rebuilt into a co-op multiplayer mode for Mass Effect 3, released in 2012. However, the mode will not return in Mass Effect: Legendary Collection, a remasters collection due out on May 14th.