At The Game Awards 2020, viewers were surprised with an announcement trailer for a brand-new Mass Effect game. Currently unnamed, the new Mass Effect looks like a direct sequel to Mass Effect 3, though if you break down the trailer further, there are hints it could be a follow-up to Mass Effect: Andromeda as well.

Developer BioWare had already confirmed that it was working on a new Mass Effect alongside Dragon Age 4 and Anthem 2.0, but the Game Awards trailer is our first official view of what the game could be about. Admittedly, it's not much--the trailer showcases two galaxies, zooms in on the Milky Way, plays radio transmissions that showcase humanity's evolution when it comes to space travel, and then finally focuses on an icy planet.

On this planet, we see a hooded figure ascend a destroyed Reaper, where they find a piece of N7 armor among the snow and ice. The figure then pulls back their hood to reveal that it's Liara T'Soni, a returning character from the original trilogy, and the camera refocuses to show that she's joined on this expedition by three other figures, though their identities can't be made out. Because Liara is an asari--a race of aliens that appear youthful for centuries and live for close to 1000 years--and she's only 109 in Mass Effect 3, we can't actually use her appearance to estimate how much time has passed. It kind of feels like BioWare specifically chose to feature only her in the new game's first trailer for that very purpose.