The saddest news of the week concerns the closure of BioWare, the historic studio owned by EA that created legendary series, including Mass Effect. Now, the direct result of this closure, besides leaving 400 employees without jobs, is the cancellation of the next Mass Effect game.

The long-awaited new chapter of the series, which has not received a new game in nine years, would have been a big risk for BioWare. After the somewhat disappointing release of the latest Dragon Age, which came out a couple of years ago and received a mixed response from fans and critics, the return of Mass Effect could have marked either the rebirth or the final end of BioWare. Unfortunately, we will never know how things would have turned out.

What we do know today, however, is that Derek Künsken, an award-winning science fiction writer who won the Asimov Reader’s Award in 2012, has described the writing work on Mass Effect Universe as fantastic. Here is what the writer shared on his official X account (thanks PC Gamer):

I have a weird announcement. On and off for the last five years, as a contract writer, and as a senior writer on staff, I’ve been hoping to be allowed to say where I worked. Today I finally got the green light: I’ve been working on the next Mass Effect.

Unfortunately, the light turned green because BioWare is being shuttered. Over the coming weeks, I’ll get more clarity on what I can say about what I did and saw and learned. I hope it’s more than nothing—what we were cooking was really cool. I can say that everyone I met at BioWare was a decent human being, an expert in their field, and was ambitiously imaginative about what a future experience of Bioware could be. Working closely with Parrish Ley and Mary DeMarle will be highlights of my writing career.

Of course, we do not know whether Mass Effect would have been a great chapter in the series, especially in terms of its story. For now, what remains is the disappointment of those who worked hard over the past few years on the new entry in one of the most loved gaming series of all time.