IF Mass Effect truly is dead, will/should EA/Bioware even announce this?

Yes, I think that's safe to say. 

(some do have a predominant good or awful reception)

"I've seen the light!" 😂

I don't see what EA would gain by saying anything at all. They'll just keep doing what they're doing and keep fans' attention on Bioware. However EA doesn't seem like the type of company that puts anything on ice. When they're done with something it's a wrap. Period. The only exception I can think of is NBA Live but that's a sports game. And besides I don't see why this is hard to believe. Bioware putting Montreal on their flagship franchise sent clear messages long before Andromeda was released. They could've easily put Montreal on project Dillan but it's been clear ever since they started talking about it that they wanted to take on Destiny 2 and now it's just obvious that they wanted to get their best people on it.

So I'm honestly past thoughts of the end of Mass Effect. If it returns I'll be pleasantly surprised. Otherwise life goes on. The real question is whether Bioware is still in the business of making RPGs.

That's also a wait an see question, isn't it? If they aren't, it wouldn't break me either. There will always be a company picking up where they left off, thereby also leaving an opening in the market.

But Bioware has always produced games I wasn't the least bit interested in, without abandoning their strengths. Andromeda is only the latest game I don't care one bit about.

i'd say subjectively that halo5 had virtually zero replay value and was too short, it relied on having a good film lots of marketing and a bolt on multiplayer that was almost as shit as crisis 3...

its only saving grace is that the kids love it and will spend hours upon hours playing it despite barely doing more than get lucky with a kill or two every few revives.... 

on the other hand Andromeda has a good backstory has replay value (if for no other reason than to level up some more) but has a much better multiplayer now that half the bugs have been fixed (although that no sound bug really is shitty) 

subjectively speaking ive spent a lot more time playing Andromeda than I did playing halo (all of them combined) but not as much time as I did playing the original Zelda game (haven t played one since the 90's) so for me none of the newer versions of Zelda were of import /

having said that the bad points of Andromeda only really shine through with female ryder because the voice acting is that bad 

If they couldn't tell them apart, that doesn't say enough?

Another ME game at some point will happen, but it will be not MEA2. I don't believe we will see Ryder's and Andromeda ever again.

You believing that won't make it happen.

I used to want to play BOTW but you have made me hate it.

Dude I own and use an xbox one for gaming.  Don't assume that all gamers use all platforms for their gaming.

For me, that's not cutting it by a long shot though for three reasons:
1. The silliness of even starting the AI (and having it stared by humans of all people) remains because the fail safe scenario was only introduced very late in the AI. The whole endevor still started in a very weird and illogical manner.
2. It also didn't matter for 99.9% of the people who signed up for it or who worked on it because the whole evacuation angle was kept top secret and only a handful of people in the upper echelons of AI leadership had any idea about it. So it's useful as an incentive for people to go either.
3. It still doesn't address the main problem with the premise and that's how they got to Andromeda. The ODSY drive makes no sense in the ME universe as we knew it before ME:A.

So yea, memories or no, the premise was, is and remains garbage.