BioWare responds to Mass Effect 3 criticisms

Mass Effect 3 executive producer Casey Hudson has responded to criticisms levied against the developer in regards to the game's ending and its day-one downloadable content.

Talking to Digital Trends, Hudson explained that the way in which Mass Effect 3 ended was intentionally designed to get gamers talking.

"I didn't want the game to be forgettable, and even right down to the sort of polarizing reaction that the endings have had with people--debating what the endings mean, and what's going to happen next, and what situation are the characters left in," he said. "That to me is part of what's exciting about this story. There has always been a little bit of mystery there and a little bit of interpretation, and it's a story that people can talk about after the fact."

Hudson also for the second time in the past month defended the day-one From Ashes downloadable content for Mass Effect 3. He reiterated that BioWare finished Mass Effect 3 before the studio moved to work on the add-on content.

"I think people get it now," he said. "They get the fact that sometimes the way that things work in game development isn't known very well by a lot of people, so there's an opportunity for misunderstanding, including the fact that as a multi-studio team and company, we have many projects that are ongoing. When we finish a game, we finish it many months before it actually hits the shelves and the team goes on to work on something else that in those intervening months represent millions of dollars of development time, which either goes toward the next game that you might not see for several years or a different game that they might go to work on like Dragon Age or the Old Republic."

Earlier this week, publisher Electronic Arts said parts of the From Ashes DLC were already on Mass Effect 3 discs, noting that the move was needed to ensure the "seamless" integration of the DLC's new character, Javik.

Mass Effect 3 shipped for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 last week and swiftly shipped 3.5 million units worldwide. For more on the space-faring role-playing game, check out GameSpot's review.