On today’s episode of Kotaku Talk Radio, BioWare developer Greg Zeschuk said that the Mass Effect IP – a planned trilogy – will not end with the release of Mass Effect 3. In other words, BioWare EA plans to milk the franchise for all it’s worth.
“We’re actually going to continue to use it for stuff and we’re going to continue to make games there. Believe me, we have our work cut out for us for the next little while getting Mass Effect 3 done after this. Don’t worry if you love Mass Effect, there will be more Mass Effect in the future.”
Kotaku’s article gave example’s such as the Halo universe spreading to other genre’s like Ensemble’s swan song title Halo Wars. Not sure that I foresee a “Mass Effect Wars” RTS game on the horizon, but stranger things have happened.
What I could certainly foresee (may as well start a rumor while I’m at it!) is a Mass Effect MMORPG. A multi-platform MMORPG, for that matter, though not cross-platform. Mass Effect is a huge name on consoles and it’s shooter-esqe approach is appealing to many console gamers, myself included.
To use the Warcraft analogy that once upon a time was applied to World of Warcraft, it took three Warcraft games until there was enough Warcraft lore, story, etc. to deserve a MMORPG. That is often used as a counter-argument for why people said there would not be a “Worlds of Starcraft” MMORPG because there’s currently only the one game, with the second game in development. (I could see a Starcraft-based MMOG that was a hybrid RPG and shooter (both first- and third-person, switchable) but Blizzard says their new MMOG is also a new IP, so that theory is out the window. Using the “three games first” theory, it could certainly stand to reason that the Mass Effect IP would have enough interest and sales behind it to warrant development of a MMOG in that universe. I would be interested, but only on the condition they use BioWare-developed RPG systems for it, not the anti-social DIKU mechanics.
The other little tidbit in the podcast was that Mass Effect 3 will also use the same “persistent” save game concept that Mass Effect 2 will be using, checking which decisions were made in Mass Effect 1 to affect how your Mass Effect 3 game will play.
The main reason I find this interesting is that it directly implies Mass Effect 3 will be made during the current console generation. The current generation has already been stretched longer than any previous generation, and both Microsoft and Sony have implied, if not outright stated, to not expect the next hardware generation until at least 2012, most likely 2013 or 2014. I’ve read several “MMOG’s on consoles” blog posts recently and they all cited console generation lifespans as a con, but that argument hasn’t applied this time around, and if I shake my Magic 8 Ball, the next generation will be similar. Quote Everquest all you want, and sure it runs on modern multi-CPU PC’s but I’ve tried several games from the single-core days that are newer than Everquest and they don’t work at all on multi-core CPU’s. Between shifts in CPU’s, GPU’s and DirectX versions, PC’s also have “generations” even if they usually strive to maintain backwards-compatibility most of the time.
However, I would not expect a Mass Effect MMOG to appear within the current console generation. There has been too much feet-dragging on the part of Microsoft, Sony, and every development studio that has ever claimed to be “working on” a console MMOG. The only two I actually expect to see the light of day at all within the current generation is DUST 514 and Final Fantasy XIV. The Magic 8 Ball tells me the next generation of consoles will blur the line a little further between console and PC and will have MMOG’s in mind peripheral-wise, and then we’ll really start seeing some serious development – and releases! – in the massively multiplayer realm.
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With Bioware making TOR, I don’t see Mass Effect being a MMO.
@xXJayeDuBXx: Why not? Yesterday they confirmed my theory of seeing Mass Effect within the current generation — BioWare said it’s being worked on now and to expect it in early 2012. They had to grow their company to do TOR and if EA is happy with TOR’s performance I see no reason they wouldn’t allow BioWare to grow a new team for a Mass Effect MMOG.
Personally, maybe I’m outgrowing what our current MMOG’s are capable of and would almost prefer just making a cooperative RPG, perhaps releasing dedicated server software so we could set up our own little persistent worlds that would hold 32-64 players or so, sorta like NWN did. I’d be into that for sure.
Ugh, I hate it when franchises get milked for money. Classic (non-game) example are the Matrix films. First one was great and should’ve ended there, then they went and tacked another two on which just didn’t work and weren’t very good
Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind a Mass Effect MMO, I was just wondering if EA is going to want two MMO’s that have a sci-fi setting out at the same time.