Hot on the heels of news rumors that a certain GameStop store was already selling pre-order activation codes for a yet-to-be-announced Mass Effect 3 DLC pack, BioWare's Executive Producer for the Mass Effect series, Casey Hudson, has started to open up about the developer's post launch content plans.
Gamers who were already frustrated by BioWare's choice to include multiplayer (as well as iOS app integration) into a series that has been built on a very refined single player experience will no doubt be expecting the developer to forgo campaign DLC in favor or co-op map packs; however, according to Hudson, the Mass Effect 3 post-release content is pretty robust.
Hudson recently spoke with CVG about the team's pre-Mass Effect 3 launch plans - as well as what players can expect from the series in the future, since the game represents the conclusion to Shepard's trilogy. Instead of offering-up details on a potential Mass Effect spin-off, prequel, or even sequel, Hudson used the opportunity to tease a few details on what gamers can expect in upcoming DLC:
"We are going to be supporting Mass Effect 3 for quite some time, because I think people are going to have a lot of fun with multiplayer, and we'll be supporting that with new content as we go forward. We also have a really good DLC plan, like we had for Mass Effect 2, so there will be new adventures and new things to do. Then, beyond that, we'll just have to wait and see."
Mass Effect fans should definitely be intrigued by the quote, especially since "new adventures" likely translates into "new missions" - where as "new things to do" could mean "new co-op arenas" or possibly the return of planet scanning (just kidding)?
While it was expected that Hudson and the Mass Effect 3 team would offer-up single player DLC, given that the story bookends this trilogy, it wasn't entirely clear where that DLC would fall within the game's timeline - leading some players to wonder if this installment wasn't going to get short-changed in terms of campaign add-on offerings. Hudson indicates that the events that close-out the trilogy make it difficult to continue this story forward with DLC but players will be able to play-through new add-on missions after beating the game - but from the "perspective" of Shepard prior to the game's finale:
"Because the story is about the final end in total war against the Reapers, that really is the interest in the game experience. So, you'll be able to play after the game ends, obviously, in a number of different ways.
We have a New Game Plus, so you take that character from the end-game and restart the game with a powerful character. We also have a premise for being able to play ongoing adventures from the perspective of the middle of the game, like we had in Mass Effect 2."
Whether this means that Shepard is doomed and will not be around for post-reaper invasion play, or just that most of the DLC adds to the reaper mythos, is anyone's guess at this point. That said, either way, fans should definitely be excited for even more Mass Effect 3 content - especially since most of the Mass Effect 2 DLC missions offered-up a variety of intriguing experiences and built on the already fascinating story cannon.
Mass Effect 3 will be released available March 6 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
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Source: CVG