With DA4 shifting to Singleplayer only, should we expect the same for Mass Effect?

I don't see an issue so long as the SP portion isn't dependent on it. I didn't pick up the MET until 2016 but my understanding is that the MP portion impacted the SP part. It's why they later developed "Galaxy at War" so that you could easily affect galactic readiness. I believe itplayed into what possible endings were available. It would be best to avoid that, as they did in MEA, because it would lose me entirely.

I think that is the obvious implication.

EA never said that Dragon Age is going single player only so I wouldn't assume that misunderstanding carries over to Mass Effect without knowing if they can monetize it. What we know is that its reported that Dragon Age won't have live service elements which doesn't mean it won't have multiplayer. For games like the last few Assassin's Creed games are all single player, but definitely have live service elements.

Well, speaking from my experiences something as big as MP would have its own independent budget from other areas of the game.  The online thinking that if BioWare didn't spend time or resources on MP would have added content to the game isn't a guarantee for the allocated developer time and money could never exist in the first place.  So if there wasn't the MP EA could just not give BioWare that money or developer hours to work on the game.  Even as an example the way I see the MELE budget they probably broken it down into ME1, ME2, and ME3 then subdivided ME1 into things like Combat, 4K, loading, etc.

So I doubt if there is any MP in any BioWare game it won't be at the expense of the main game.  If the main game suffers its more then likely from something in the development of the main game itself for they ran out of one of the resources they allocated.  I wouldn't expect it to be DLC unless they are willing to sacrifice a single player DLC to give that slot to it.  Just like ME3 where the first DLC was the Extended Cut and only three single player DLCs for new content after that.

I can take or leave multiplayer, honestly, but I’m betting that leaving it out of Dragon Age wasn’t a particularly hard decision, since the last go about wasn’t very good anyway. Mass Effect is another story. A third person shooter co-op is an easier sell for a basic game mode to tack on like ME3 and MEAMP. Considering that it’s guaranteed to have no discernible impact on the story of the singleplayer game, then it’s all good I guess.

This is old news, confirmed by BW months ago and talked about here for days. April Fool's is only the first of the month.

People are jumping to a conclusion for that isn't what the reports said.  What has been reported is that EA has told BioWare they don't need to incorporate live service elements in the next Dragon Age game.  So the internet like it normally does has jumped to the conclusion that not having live service elements automatically means there won't be multiplayer.  Without considering that MP has been part of games from before the introduction of live service elements or that single player only games have had live service elements inside of them.  So I won't be surprised if there is a MP component is both games.

My guess is that if DA4 is well received by fans and critics and does very well financially then I could see them not having a MP mode in the next ME game just like I can see if that ME:LE does well a remastered editions of DAO, DA2, and DAI (and all of the DLC and Expansions too) next on the horizon it maybe as a way to help hype up DA4 too.

I have seen more people posting that they upset then happy that the multiplayer aspect isn't present in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. So knowing BioWare they are going to take the upset posts to be who everyone feels.

I am not sure, DA and ME share alot of traits and have overlapping fanbases but are still different animals from each other. DA going strictly singleplayer makes sense because MP was never in much demand from the DA fanbase in the first place and most people were never that enthusiastic about DAI MP. It was just tacked on. Most people played DAI to play the lore and story. With ME it has been proven that multiplayer can work in an ME game. This actually worries me because it can effect SP. It effected MEAs SP in that went from an action/tactical hybrid in the trilogy to straight up action in MEA. The power wheel and squad commands were straight up gone taking away a huge tactical element the originals had in order to bring it more in line with how the game play of the MP. So in short I don't really want it but it works for Mass Effect as it brings in more players. I think it hurts the integrity of the SP product but it can be lucrative.

There could be a number of reasons even beyond technical such as something to do with the Sony and Microsoft networks.  It could even be a gauge to see how many buy a Mass Effect title that doesn't include MP to judge if they want to put the option into the next Mass Effect game.