The boss of Mass Effect may have given a hint regarding the next game. 'Make certain you play Lair of the Shadow Broker.'

We don't have much information about the next Mass Effect, except that Liara T’Soni is going to be in it. Fans of the series are eager to find out any information they can. BioWare's Michael Gamble who is leading Mass Effect 4 might have given them a little bit of information.

Gamble recently wrote on X, "So many new Mass Effect Fans popping up in my references." (via Game Rant). "Maybe it's because it's only $5 or something. It's awesome to see. It's almost like an additional game worth of content, but make sure to play Lair of the Shadow Broker. Thx."

Mass Effect Legendary Edition can be purchased for less than five dollars in the Steam Autumn Sale. This is a crazy price for hundreds of hours worth of sci-fi RPG fun. It's an excellent game (the original end was fine) that is well worth your time, if you haven’t played it already.

Gamble seems to insist that if you are new to Mass Effect, you should play the Shadow Broker DLC. For those not in the know, Lair of the Shadow Broker is a Mass Effect 2 expansion that sees Liara beefing with the mysterious--one might say shadowy--knower-of-things who first appeared, more as a plot device than a character, in the original Mass Effect. I didn't like the DLC very much. It was okay, but it served as a way for Liara to be back in the action. She isn't playable in Mass Effect 2, and since I didn’t particularly care about Liara, I found that the expansion was largely forgettable.

(I don't have anything against Liara. For the record, I preferred to roll with Zaeed, the krogan, and the kogan. Teddy Roosevelt once said that a Paragon is someone who always brings along a couple of heavy hitters.

Liara's involvement in Mass Effect 4 is already confirmed, but Gamble could be interpreted as a hint at the broader theme of the game. This is especially true since Liara was a playable squaddie in Mass Effect 3. If it was just a matter of knowing the character (alongside ME1), that would be enough. The specificity of the "make sure you play Lair of the Shadow broker" suggests that there may be more to it.

Now is the time to make these oblique suggestions. Dragon Age: The Veilguard has been released and is doing well. With no DLC planned for this game, the focus now shifts to Mass Effect. Gamble is no stranger to dropping hints. In 2023, he teased N7 Day in a small online game, which led to a new Mass Effect promotional image.