Fans are patiently waiting for BioWare to release more information about the upcoming "Mass Effect 4", but don't want the game to share the same title as Commander Shepard's trilogy.

According to Eurogamer, BioWare community manager Chris Priestly stated in the company's official forums he believes title should reflect the game.

"To call the next game Mass Effect 4 or ME4 is doing it a disservice and seems to cause a lot of confusion here," Priestly wrote on BioWare's forums. "We have already said that the Commander Shepard trilogy is over and that the next game will not feature him/her. That is the only detail you have on the game. I see people saying 'well, they'll have to pick a canon ending'. No, because the game does not have to come after."

The company has not established a timeline for the upcoming "Mass Effect 4", and reportedly won't have any new information for fans for several months. However, BioWare Montreal boss Yanick Roy has responded to Priestly's comments, hinting the game might take place after Mass Effect 3, according to Eurogamer.

"Thinking of the next Mass Effect game as Mass Effect 4 would imply a certain linearity, a straight evolution of the gameplay and story of the first three games," Roy wrote in the forum. "That doesn't mean that events of the first three games and the choices you made won't get recognised, but they likely won't be what this new story will focus on.

"If you had three games centred around a group of key soldiers in the US army during World War I and then decided to make a game about another group of people during the Second World War, the games could have many points in common and feel true to one another," he added.

"Mass Effect 4" has no official release date.