BioWare Announces Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut

[Cristian_25H]

BioWare, a Label of Electronic Arts Inc. announced Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut, a downloadable content pack that will expand upon the events at the end of the critically acclaimed Action RPG. Through additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes, the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut will give fans seeking further clarity to the ending of Mass Effect 3 deeper insights into how their personal journey concludes. Coming this summer, the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut will be available for download on the Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and PC for no extra charge (offer expires April 12, 2014).

"We are all incredibly proud of Mass Effect 3 and the work done by Casey Hudson and team," said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder of BioWare and General Manager of EA's BioWare Label. "Since launch, we have had time to listen to the feedback from our most passionate fans and we are responding. With the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut we think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team's artistic vision for the end of this story arc in the Mass Effect universe."





Casey Hudson, Executive Producer of the Mass Effect series added, "We have reprioritized our post-launch development efforts to provide the fans who want more closure with even more context and clarity to the ending of the game, in a way that will feel more personalized for each player."

The Mass Effect franchise is one of the most highly decorated series in the history of games, having earned over 250 awards from critics around the world. Mass Effect 3 launched last month to universal critical acclaim, receiving over 75 perfect scores. For more information on Mass Effect 3, please visit http://masseffect.com/, follow the game on Twitter at http://twitter.com/masseffect or "like" the game on Facebook at http://facebook.com/masseffect.

[Prima.Vera]

I don't understand. What do you mean "Offer will expire after April 12, 2014" ???

[phanbuey]

great... They need to heavily discount the original people who bought the game...

[3volvedcombat]

If they charged for the Ending Extra's for Mass-effect 3, it would be a total bull patty of shit in-between rotten bread.

An Ending of a game should be included.

If this was a Paper.
It would have gotten graded a C or worse for missing an conclusion.

[Rexter]

EA is going full on damage control mode, and it's too bad the fans eat it up whole (judging by internet gaming forums) and no media outlet calls them out on it (well who can blame them since EA is in their pockets).

Yesterday they won a poll for america's worst company, a poll that got HUGE coverage on the internet in general. Not to mention EA's stocks took a big hit afterwards.
Today they have:
-Gotten media outlets to publish articles about EA recieving hatemail from "homophobes" accusing them of having same sex relationships on their games. (EA trying to accumulate sympathy)
-Announced all of a sudden they will release an amended ending (for "free") out of the blue. And i say "out of the blue" because the female shepard voice actor said yesterday that she has heard nothing about an extended/amended/recut ending. Also the timing is a bit too conveniet for EA to suddenly have a change of heart considering they up until just now held their ground with the ending only replying to outraged fans with carefully worded forum posts.
- and much more

[Perra]

Originally Posted by Prima.Vera

I don't understand. What do you mean "Offer will expire after April 12, 2014" ???

It will probably cost money after that.

[Prima.Vera]

Originally Posted by Perra

It will probably cost money after that.

By that time, probably nobody will be interested in it. Honestly...

[btarunr]

With the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut we think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team's artistic vision for the end of this story arc in the Mass Effect universe.

In other words, there won't be a "happily ever after" ending (it will be essentially the same), they'll just make the existing ending slower/boring/palatable.

[douglatins]

Lose the color endings and just make one descent quality ending, they dont have the time to fix and ending with decisions coming from all 3 games, i know it sucks, but at least there is one quality ending instead of 3 shitty ones. Actually its one shitty one, since its all the same for a colorblind person

[phanbuey]

Originally Posted by Rexter

EA is going full on damage control mode, and it's too bad the fans eat it up whole (judging by internet gaming forums) and no media outlet calls them out on it (well who can blame them since EA is in their pockets).

Yesterday they won a poll for america's worst company, a poll that got HUGE coverage on the internet in general. Not to mention EA's stocks took a big hit afterwards.
Today they have:
-Gotten media outlets to publish articles about EA recieving hatemail from "homophobes" accusing them of having same sex relationships on their games. (EA trying to accumulate sympathy)
-Announced all of a sudden they will release an amended ending (for "free") out of the blue. And i say "out of the blue" because the female shepard voice actor said yesterday that she has heard nothing about an extended/amended/recut ending. Also the timing is a bit too conveniet for EA to suddenly have a change of heart considering they up until just now held their ground with the ending only replying to outraged fans with carefully worded forum posts.
- and much more

That is a sign of rational and reactive management at EA. This is good. The comments and the stock dip probably caused the big boss to step in.

[Kreij]

I can't believed they caved.
If it was my game and people didn't like the ending I would tell them to go pound sand ... and send more cupcakes.

[phanbuey]

Originally Posted by Kreij

I can't believed they caved.
If it was my game and people didn't like the ending I would tell them to go pound sand ... and send more cupcakes.

You would be out of business very quickly. The best customers are the ones that criticize your product... at least they took the time to give you feedback on what you have done and why they didnt like it.

The other will just say nothing and walk away, and there go your sales. I would much rather have people criticize my work than simply deem it "bad."

[Kreij]

So artistic expression, presentation and interpretation in storytelling is no longer up to the artists', but instead to be decided by what the general masses like (or dislike).
What's next? Boycotting authors because their book left some details hanging and the ending wasn't all rainbows and unicorns?

Pretty sad day for writers if that trend continues.

Just my 2 cents.

[lilhasselhoffer]

Wow, EA is bitch slapping us with one hand, and trying to appease us with the other.

Note, the "extended cut" is only free for a limited time. This means either it will be charged for if you buy the game later, or it will become a part of the official game (unlikely). Who knows. I'm angry that EA is asking us to forgive them, without giving everyone a fair shake.

What actually pisses me off though is massive middle finger that the statement raises. Look carefully, and you see:

...vision for the end of this story arc in the Mass Effect universe.

EA is telling us that they are going to milk Mass Effect like they've milked the NFL. While most of us thought this was going to be the case, there's nothing like having a decent apology completely negated by a few well placed words. My only response to this is that I won't be buying from them, as I haven't purchased ME3 for myself.


For the love of whatever you find sacred, vote with your wallets. EA getting bad press from the consumerist, dipping stock values, and the controversy surrounding ME3 isn't enough. We need to send a message to EA, so that they are forced to listen and change for the better. The only way to do this is to stop buying their crap!

Originally Posted by Kreij

So artistic expression, presentation and interpretation in storytelling is no longer up to the artists', but instead to be decided by what the general masses like (or dislike).
What's next? Boycotting authors because their book left some details hanging and the ending wasn't all rainbows and unicorns?

Pretty sad day for writers if that trend continues.

Just my 2 cents.

While the sentiment is reasonable, the problem is what Bioware promised. Different endings, that hinged upon the decisions we made in all three games.

Beyond who gets to repopulate with Joker, the endings main differences are what color explosions there are. This is not multiple endings, the choices and efforts we made don't influence the end game.

I can live with the artistic choice of a depressing ending, that caps off an otherwise triumphant fight. I can't settle for the absolute lazy "pick the color" ending that they provided.


If you want to write a compelling story, or not, that is your choice. When the people in charge of PR make promises, you have to answer to those promises. Bioware made more promises than EA was willing to keep, so people are angry. The fault lies with those that made promises, but unfortunately they aren't held accountable because they "aren't directly accountable" for how the story ends.

[Easy Rhino]

don't piss off the nerds!

[BigMack70]

Mass Effect 3: Now with options for purple or yellow mass relay explosions!

Will never be purchasing anything from Bioware again.

[PopcornMachine]

I haven't finished the game yet, but I get it seems that they just didn't do the story justice. Been playing mult player a lot because single player is mostly a downer.

Some big choices made in previous games have very little consequence in this game, and that is not what I was expecting. I understand what some are saying about artistic expression, but if they took the easy path and didn't maintain the quality and promise of the previous versions, then they did a bad job.

A more complete ending is just a partial fix, and it should be completely free.

[zootac]

bet the DLC is locket on the DVD you pay them to open it,

[meirb111]

the game graphics wasnt anything new its a recycled mass effect 2 graphics very small change
they should work on high res pack or somthing

[phanbuey]

Originally Posted by Kreij

So artistic expression, presentation and interpretation in storytelling is no longer up to the artists', but instead to be decided by what the general masses like (or dislike).
What's next? Boycotting authors because their book left some details hanging and the ending wasn't all rainbows and unicorns?

Pretty sad day for writers if that trend continues.

Just my 2 cents.

Its not art if you are selling it. When you start selling your "art" it becomes a product, and the rules change. They change especially when YOU as the artist want people to buy your stuff...

If your "art" has a crappy ending and I spent money on it, and you want me to buy your next art, then you will come to me and say - hey... i wrote an ending that you like better, please spend your hard earned money on it and my next thing because you will like it.

Otherwise make your art, DONT sell it, and then make whatever you want.

This is not really a "trend" it's basically been this way since the Renaissance with artists and patrons. We want the artists to be creative in coming up in new and unique things, but if they come up with crap, we want to be able to tell them "this is crap, keep coming out with the good stuff or you won't get paid".

[Kreij]

@Phan : The discussion of the quality of art is so subjective that it really is better discussed sitting face to face with copious amounts of beer, resulting in yelling and insults and then singing stupid songs before packing it in for the night. If you're ever in WI, PM me so we can get stupid and have fun dissing each other. My treat.

On topic : It better be free for the life of the game or EA is going to be grovelling to the fans again in short order.

[illli]

i don't get the expiration date either.

[Kreij]

The expiration date is EA's way of saying "In two years no one will remember this fiasco and we will be able to charge for the new ending at that point."

[crazyeyesreaper]

meh their is little artistic integrity to games now,

once you start mass marketing something with focus groups to make it appeal to a large audience, start ripping it apart and selling it in chunks you've lost the right to call it Art at that point its not art its a product made to be sold for the largest amount of profit,

usually art is a small set of prints or a single work, that gets sold,

multiple millions of games with DLC content are not ART, some games yes they are indeed works of art and wonderous, but have you ever noticed all the games that achieved that status never offered DLC, they never broke the game into chunks to sell off, and most of them are now 10 years old or more lol, only games i can think of in an Art aspect is ICO, and Shadow of The Colossus.

True Art isnt made for profit as said by Albert Einstein
"True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist." Albert Einstein

Mass Effect wasn't an irresistible urge it was seen as a great way to make money its essentially star trek but more interactive, notice story gets worse but action becomes more prevailent? thats not artistic integrity thats focus groups at work, lol, still EA sucks regardless of how you look at it and fans expected more from BioWare's creation, but when big names in the company that have been there for years helping shape many franchises quit because of the direction things are headed it should tell you something about how much so called artistic integrity is really valued.

[phanbuey]

Originally Posted by Kreij

@Phan : The discussion of the quality of art is so subjective that it really is better discussed sitting face to face with copious amounts of beer, resulting in yelling and insults and then singing stupid songs before packing it in for the night. If you're ever in WI, PM me so we can get stupid and have fun dissing each other. My treat.

On topic : It better be free for the life of the game or EA is going to be grovelling to the fans again in short order.

I love beer - we should totally have some - but I doubt I would diss you, since I actually think you're a smart guy.

I'm not talking about what the quality is, but merely who should judge it. In this case EA wants us to buy their stuff, so we, as the people with the money that they want, get our opinions heard. In my mind its great.

If they told us to go suck it, then we wouldn't buy their stuff, they just chose the better strategy.

Ultimately, the artist that came up with the idea of the story is still in a dark dungeon somewhere in the EA castle, where some middle manager throws him a steak every once in a while, and then whips him repeatedly while screaming "WRITE! WRITE FASTER".