BioWare considered charging for Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut

BioWare considered charging for Mass Effect 3's Extended Cut downloadable content, community lead Chris Priestly has revealed.

"Probably shouldn't say this; there was discussion [about] should it be charged," Priestly said during a recent PAX Australia panel. "And [executive producer Casey Hudson] said, 'No, we can't do that. We have to make this better. We can do a better job finishing the game, providing clarity, answering some questions.' And it was very important to the team to end it as best as possible."

Recalling the fan blowback surrounding Mass Effect 3's controversial endings, Priestly said the team at BioWare could have ignored the feedback and just moved on. However, BioWare ultimate reassessed the endings and released the Extended Cut because "it was the right thing to do."

"It would have been really easy for them to have hidden. To have put their heads down and said, "Nope, we're done. That's it. DLC coming next month,'" Priestly said. "They didn't. And it's hard; it's really hard when you've put stuff in as a dev team for years making this game to have people say how bad it is. But they didn't. They listened and they made the Extended Cut because it was the right thing to do and release it for free to the fans because again, it was the right thing to do."

Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut launched in June 2012 as a free download for all platforms. It features new epilogue scenes that expand on the original Mass Effect 3 ending and aims to give greater clarity to the conclusion of Commander Shepard's story.

BioWare is currently working on an all-new Mass Effect game described as "fresh and new."