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New Mass Effect DLC info due 'this week' - BioWare

Over a year after Bring Down the Sky, the Canadian developer will soon unveil the "gaming-casino fight club" update to its interstellar role-playing game--which "sets up" Mass Effect 2.

In the years leading up to and following Mass Effect's 2007 release, BioWare has often discussed a steady stream of downloadable content for the game. "Post-release downloadable content to Mass Effect is definitely something that's very important for BioWare," said cofounder Ray Muzyka in a video interview on a bonus disc included with the Platinum Hits edition of Mass Effect. (See video below.) "It's this big toy box, this enormous galaxy, with millions of stars and planets to explore."

No word on whether or not the space casino will have a

No word on whether or not the space casino will have a "No Batarians" policy.

However, to date, BioWare has explored exactly one star system via the sole downloadable content pack for Mass Effect, Bring Down the Sky. It was released in March 2008 as a paid add-on for Xbox 360 and then in July 2008 as a free add-on for the PC edition of the game. The mission concerns one populated planet--or, more accurately, a giant asteroid threatening to strike said planet after terrorists from the Batarian race hijack giant engines affixed to it.

Soon, though, BioWare will unveil the second downloadable content update for Mass Effect--which will act as a mini-prequel to Mass Effect 2, due out in early 2010. The official Twitter pages for both BioWare and Mass Effect 2 are promising new information on the still-untitled expansion by Friday.

According to a tweet from BioWare staffer Chris "Evil Chris" Priestly, he is "getting the feeling some news about the next ME1 DLC may be coming this week. Keep your eyes peeled." No pricing or release date information has yet been revealed.

During the same video interview, Mass Effect project director Casey Hudson and lead designer Preston Watamaniuk both described the second Mass Effect DLC in some detail. Said Hudson, "With things like Bring Down the Sky, we want to make sure there's always content out there for [players] to be able to play through, so it kind of leads into Mass Effect 2. In particular, we kind of have some exciting things we want to do in terms of the story on how, through the story, the downloadable content is going to set up the sequel."

According to Watamaniuk, the DLC itself will contain "something that we weren't able to pull off, we didn't think we had the time and we didn't think we'd do well enough, which was a fight club, or an arena. So we're working on that for our next downloadable content piece, which we're hoping will be really special."

"We wanted to give people something that's much more combat-oriented [and] a little bit lighter story kind of experience," Hudson said of the new add-on. "You can go to a kind of a casino-gaming fight club space station."

126 Comments

  • belial_77

    Posted Aug 23, 2009 7:45 pm GMT

    I figured the EA buyout kept them from releasing any... and thought they had just decided to pick back up w/ ME2.

    Imagine my surprise when I looked at my Achievement list on xbox.com and saw a lot of new ones for the DLC!

    Can't wait!

  • siarhei

    Posted Aug 23, 2009 8:45 am GMT

    Wow, another DLC for Mass Effect, really?
    It sure sounds like a bad joke.
    Where were those guys for the last two years?
    I think they are only releasing it to hype up ME2.
    They should really learn from Bethesda: 5 DLCs in half a year!

  • Jooj

    Posted Aug 1, 2009 9:12 am GMT

    I heard it's due out mid October.

  • THX-1137

    Posted Jul 1, 2009 5:36 pm GMT

    So do you think the DLC will come out before ME2?

    No, really; it's rather odd that Bioware is releasing DLC to not only a nearly two year old game, but also the likelihood that it will be released within a couple of months of the next game's launch. I can understand building up hype for the next game, but it is still rather strange.

  • bagehi

    Posted Jun 29, 2009 11:56 am GMT

    This DLC will give insight into the upcoming game. At a casino-gaming fight club space station. This will be interesting to see. The original game was fantastic. The first DLC was great. No reason to think this DLC won't cause me to dig up the disk, blow off the dust, and get hooked on the game once more.

  • dentedhalo posted Jun 27, 2009 4:09 pm GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    dentedhalo

    Posted Jun 27, 2009 4:09 pm GMT (hide)

    i dont get this....... its an add-on pack to a nearly 2 year old game....... its should never be so important that they need to be this cagey about it - I would have hoped Bioware were better than this!!!

  • trippinsands

    Posted Jun 27, 2009 8:47 am GMT

    NO NEW INFO COMING!!!!!!!!! HERE IS THE OFFIIAL POST...

    Quote: Posted 06/26/09 22:11 (GMT) by Chris Priestly

    Sorry. We will not be discussing ME1 DLC this week or for a while yet.

    This is totally my fault for jumping the gun and getting your expectations up. No excuse, I messed up.

    We'll talk abotu the next ME1 DLC when we can, but I don't have event the estimate of a date so I don't do this to you again.

    Sorry.
    END QUOTE:

    We waited all week for THIS?! I don't blame him, I blame Bioware
    for being to secretive about freakin download content, ridiculous..
    I give up, i've been waiting 15 freakin months for INFORMATION of
    any kind, this was the final straw.. And not only were we wrong, so was
    every single person/blogger who reported it and speculated what
    it would be... ehm, to the person who wrote the article above..

  • dentedhalo

    Posted Jun 26, 2009 6:02 pm GMT

    I think a lynching is in order..... where does this Mr Preistly live

  • dentedhalo

    Posted Jun 26, 2009 5:25 pm GMT

    WHERE IS THE PRESS RELEASE!!!!

  • trippinsands

    Posted Jun 26, 2009 8:36 am GMT

    Well its midfriday and nothing has been said. Starting to look like
    Mr. Presley is making good on his threat. Unless they plan on waiting
    till the very last possible minute.

  • DarkFireGod69

    Posted Jun 25, 2009 8:22 pm GMT

    @razorsedge820
    Yes.
    That is exactly it.

  • sonictank

    Posted Jun 25, 2009 4:46 pm GMT

    im thinkin the dlc will probally only cost 5$.

  • razorsedge820

    Posted Jun 25, 2009 6:31 am GMT

    This has really blown up in Biowares face. Its almost Friday and no word on the new DLC content yet. So far it seems this new info isn't going to be released since the main forum moderator for Mass Effect got sensitive and has decided to become even more of an arrogant a-hole than usual. If you want to see how NOT to be a forum moderator head over to the Mass Effect community forums and just see how Chris Priestly the main moderator treats the fans. Its seems as if the power has gotten to his head. Its his job as a PR representative to please the fans not piss them off. It also comes at no surprise that Chris is the one who hinted about the new ME content info this week. If this info isn't released this week than bioware should seriously consider laying off people cough ** Chris Presley** .

  • Jedited255

    Posted Jun 25, 2009 12:23 am GMT

    "Bring Down the Sky" cost only $5, FIVE FREAKIN DOLLARS!!! Considering the wealth of content in the full game(however repetative it may be) i'd say it was plenty worth it.

    Also, the mission was took me about hour the first time i played it.

  • trippinsands

    Posted Jun 24, 2009 9:07 pm GMT

    Now the fans are turning on eachother over at the Bioware board,
    seriously get some popcorn head over there and read the board,
    its entertaining yet really sad...Is no one going to call Bioware out
    for this mess they caused?

  • sonictank

    Posted Jun 24, 2009 8:23 pm GMT

    man i wish more info would come already!!!

  • uberjannie

    Posted Jun 24, 2009 1:51 pm GMT

    oh, and no mention of a simultaneous release on the 360 and the PC?

  • Angry_Jawa

    Posted Jun 24, 2009 8:43 am GMT

    This was a great read Tor. It is refreshing to have an article calling out devs for broken promises on the lack of DLC when ME was initially represented by the devs as offering more. There is MAJOR fallout over this DLC article on the ME community boards... fans freaking out, and a developer comment that was probably supposed to be humorous but instead acted like a molotov cocktail. I feel the same way about the DLC "promises" BioWare made because they were talking a good game about all the fantastic DLC to be available before Mass Effect was even released. Then BDTS...18 months or so of utter silence... then this. Plainly stated, they promised things that they did NOT deliver. Will I get this DLC when it comes out, you bet, will I hold my breath while waiting, no freaking way.

    Don't get me wrong, I loved Mass Effect (my favorite game from that year, I played the crap out of it) and am super pumped for the ME2. However, maybe its time for BioWare to admit that they did not follow through with all of their promises instead of snarky comments to the fans on the ME board. Considering that most of their site community probably bought the game, they should be entitled to a few gripes without a "Ren & Stimpy" style slap to the face from the devs on the community sites...

  • Jedilink109

    Posted Jun 24, 2009 12:07 am GMT

    Haha, I'm actually reading Mass Effect: Revelation right now every day on my breaks at work. I'm really excited about any new DLC and the new game. Although I DO wish they'd maybe made more DLC like Fallout 3 has done. That game has LOADS of extra content. Either way, the second I finished ME1 I wanted to start playing the sequel. I'm INSANELY excited to finally get the second game.

  • trippinsands

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 7:23 pm GMT

    How can they blame the fans for this? All anyone ever asked for
    was some communication, and they act like the fans asked for the
    world on a silver platter. Those comments buy a community coordinator are just ridiculous. They string people along for over a year, and are rude to them because the fans are testy? Give me a break!! They have a right to be a little angry when no one at Bioware would give ANYONE a straight answer for over a year, they'd dance around it, and tease, they wouldn't even confirm if there would ever be dlc after bdts. Its just messed up how Bioware has and is handling this.

  • DarkFireGod69

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 5:12 pm GMT

    The following is from Chris Priestly, Community Coordinator, BioWare.
    "You will see what, if anything, we announce this week if it happens.

    I did not "announce an announcement". I dropped a hint on Twitter to the people who follow us there that we may be talking about ME1 DLC this week. It didn't come here and post a big "Stand By or Don't for someday which may or may not come when we may reveal something unless we don't!" I didn't change any website pages heralding the news. We didn't issue a press release with announcements. If it had been an announcement, we would have announced it.

    I am having second thoughts about this. I think it may be better to just wait a while longer instead of saying anything this week."

    So looks like they are not going to now because they are getting bashed for taking over a year to release ANY info at all

  • trippinsands

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 3:56 pm GMT

    At the Bioware board they are now saying that they are having
    second thoughts about releasing the info this week. The moderator
    is angry that the fans are complaining to much. I've never seen so
    many people angry about the lack of info or response about dlc before.
    And wow, i'm stunned at Biowares attitude towards the fans.

  • TheHappyCamper

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 2:32 pm GMT

    For a game like Mass Effect, where the story was without a doubt its strongest point, its seems a little strange to make DLC that is "lighter on the story". Still I really enjoyed ME, and if Bioware is finally making good on its promise of post launch dlc, ill definetley at least check it out.

  • norabbitnofun

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 2:09 pm GMT

    Jack Vance - "the Pnume, the Chasch and the Dirdir", is a novel that has such a fighting arena. I liked the book. :-)

  • SovietAgent

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 12:47 pm GMT

    Yeah, this DLC will likely just attract devout fans to this game. This DLC is a little bit too late.

  • Articfox6

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 11:50 am GMT

    I sold Mass Effect. But this DLC ,depending on pricing, makes me slightly want to play it again.

  • ParisSun

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 11:42 am GMT

    I'll believe this when I see it. Bioware's support of ME has been really tepid. Compared to dlc for Fable 2, Fallout 3 and Oblivion, it's not even in the same galaxy. It would have been understandable if ME was much better than those games but it wasn't. Mass Effect was a very good game but a lot elements of the game bothered me; i.e.., bland planet scapes, terrible load times, silly vehicle play and a bothersome storage system. Overall good game but I expected more. Definitely looking forward to ME2 though because I think they are on the right track and I think they will correct a lot of the previous game issues.

  • pwnzord

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 11:26 am GMT

    Casino-gaming fight club? Yeah if I wanted to see that I'd drive 10 miles to the strip. This sounds awful, but I'll wait and see what info they really have to say about it when they talk this Friday.

    But 800 points would be a huge asking price for a game that I enjoyed the story most of all, and yet this is going to be a "lighter story kind of experience".

  • punkpunker

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 11:21 am GMT

    whats in the mini prequel, i want to know!!

  • TrueProphecy22

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 11:10 am GMT

    I don't think a simple fight club in one of the cantinas somewhere is really something worth it for those of us who have finished this game multiple times. It would have been a nice update not long after the game launched.. a nice diversion from the norm once and a while as we went through the story.

  • Phaselinear

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 10:46 am GMT

    One other note.......I don't like it at all when game developers sit there in front of you and say things like..."Well, we hopefully will".......or, "You should be able to".......or, "We wanted to, but".........WTF!! You either do or you don't, we either can or we can't, we will or we won't....etc. Make up your minds, then tell us what to expect.......or just shut the f*** up!!!!!

  • Phaselinear

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 10:40 am GMT

    The one drawback to Mass Effect has always been the lack of "add-ons" or "down-loadable" content. Hopefully ME2 will have better opportunities for this franchise to expand outward.

  • angelGP32

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 9:06 am GMT

    @shkr: for the amount of money it is, I think it's worth it. It's cheap, I think 400 pts. I enjoyed it, just don't expect anything more than a $5 add on and you'll be good to go.

  • DPhunkT

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 8:09 am GMT

    Are you kidding me?! I just sold ME! I would have kept it if I would have known this!

  • LTMarine

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 7:25 am GMT

    "Post-release downloadable content to Mass Effect is definitely something that's very important for BioWare" If it's so important to them than why does it take so long to release a second DLC.. and the first one wasn't that great.. well atleast it was free so i can't really complain and i am happy that they are releasing some new content, but compared to bethesda they don't really care that much about DLC's.

  • datniccah187

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 7:18 am GMT

    I'll probally check it out. The first DLC was alright. Nothing to special but definately worth playing if you liked the game. I'll be checking this out for sure. Hopefully it will be more impressive Bring Down the Sky. We'll see.

  • Irve

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 6:54 am GMT

    great this sounds like Mass effect will now have 2 underwhelming DLC packs
    oh well
    if it's cheap enough and acts as a teaser for ME2 then i might still go for it.

  • jokers_anarchy

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 6:17 am GMT

    i dont think it should be more combat oriented because the combat wast that strong. its like operation anchorage with fallout 3

  • shkar

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 6:04 am GMT

    By the way ....I couldn't try bring down the sky till now......Is it good?
    Because I'm interested in anything related to the masterpiece game mass effect........I wouldn't wanna miss anything regarding to the story....

  • ParisSun

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 5:40 am GMT

    I don't see how dlc that is "light on story" going to be a good lead in to Mass Effect 2. Better go to the Bioware mesage board and find out what's up.

  • Lone_Warrior_66

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 5:39 am GMT

    I don't mind paying for extra DLC as long as it's good. Bring down the sky was a nice mission but very short, not worth paying that extra for. I hope this will be diffrent.

  • lightwarrior179

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 5:32 am GMT

    Bring Down The Sky wasn't worth what it costed despite the fact that it was more Mass Effect.
    I think addition of a fight club/arena might be something more worth. We'll see...

  • flip_flop_

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 4:43 am GMT

    Can not say bring down the sky was worth paying for... unless I missed something wonderful about it while playing.

  • Lance_Kalzas

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 4:42 am GMT

    @cocomacoco

    Bring Down the Sky was not 15 minutes of extra gameplay for $5.00. People exaggerate far too much and have unrealistic expectations of video games.

  • shawn7324

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 4:28 am GMT

    The one thing that seems to have gone missing after my HD to HD transfer, yes that's right my Mass Effect saves. Oh well will just have to replay it I reckon, thank goodness its enjoyable enough to do it all again.

  • lamprey263

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 4:22 am GMT

    hopefully it's free, being as it's promotional

    I'm guess that since nobody knows about pricing and stuff that this will end up being an exclusive downloadable episode to people who put $5 on a pre-order at their local GameStop

  • Spectre-123

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 4:07 am GMT

    I think after they release this DLC they should offer Bring Down the Sky for free...

  • Excedra

    Posted Jun 23, 2009 2:49 am GMT

    yeah...cool....whatever

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