AAA development cycles have increased dramatically since Mass Effect 2 launched in 2010, to the point that it's not uncommon to see 10-year gaps between mainline releases i.e. The Elder Scrolls 6, GTA 6, and Fallout 5. Contrast that with the 26 months in-between Mass Effect 1 and 2, and you start to wonder what type of coffee the folks at now-defunct BioWare were drinking back then. The truth is, the size and scope of big-budget games have ballooned alongside development cycles, but the Mass Effect 2 team benefited from a number of other factors that seem sorely lacking in today's AAA landscape, as pointed out by Mass Effect 2 lead designer Christina Norman.

In a new tweet, Norman explains "how mass effect 2 came together in 18 months successfully," and well, it reads like a list of things AAA studios aren't doing anymore. First of all, "it was the same team that shipped mass effect," says Norman, adding that, "teams often have a lot of turn over," but for ME2, "the core team stayed the same." A novel concept, I know, but maybe there is something to the idea of maintaining a long-term vision and trusting your staff through highs and lows that results in long-term success.

Norman also says the team at BioWare "knew the timeline up front" and learned from Mass Effect 1 on a couple of points. "A lot of mistakes" were made developing Mass Effect 1 in Unreal, and so the developers "came into mass effect 2 knowing how to build" in that engine.

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