BioWare, a video game division of Electronic Arts, announced on Thursday that the North American distributor Funimation and the Japanese studio T.O Entertainment agreed to produce an "anime feature film" based on BioWare's Mass Effect science-fiction role-playing game (RPG) franchise. The movie is already in production, and the producers aim to release the project via digital means and home video in the summer of 2012. T.O Entertainment's other projects include Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts and Bungaku Shoujo .

Funimation announced last year that it was working with BioWare to create an anime film based on BioWare's popular Dragon Age action RPG franchise. In the new press release, Funimation President and CEO Gen Fukunaga reports production is "underway" on that film project as well.

The first Mass Effect videogame is set in the year 2183, when humans explore the galaxy and has made contact with alien species. The player controls the protagonist, a human soldier named Commander Shepard, whose skills and appearance are customizable. Throughout the game, Shepard works to save organic life from a threat known as the Reapers, a machine race which sows destruction throughout the galaxy. BioWare released the first game for the Xbox 360 on November 20, 2007, with a PC version released on May 28, 2008. A sequel titled Mass Effect 2 was released on the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 consoles this past January.

Update: More background information added.

Update 2: Game information, image added.