Earlier this week, we reported that BioWare was currently in the process of creating an extended ending for Mass Effect 3 entitled ME3: Extended Cut. During the panel at PAX East, producer Mike Gamble revealed a few details as to why they wanted to make this DLC. Extended is still on course for a summer release and will be available at no charge.
Gamble’s main point was that player feedback revealed a lot of disappointment in the current ending which barely took into account the choices made throughout the series. With the extended cut, BioWare’s goal is aiming to fix this and give players and ending which do reflect their choices as well as give the ending more clarity overall. Gamble also added that the entire development team is working on the extended cut so they can make their summer release date.
We wanted to give the players a sense of personalization with the endings, many people mentioned that some of the choices they made in the game are not necessarily reflected in the ending scenes. We’re definitely going to focus on things like that. We want to make sure that when you see the ending of Mass Effect, you now have the information and context to be satisfied. It’s more than just a few cinematic scenes. We’re currently building it right now, our cinematics team is on it. Our writers are heavily involved. It’s coming together.
Finally, Gamble added that the extended cut was not a brand new ending but, rather an extended cut of the current endings as BioWare is still proud of what is currently in game.
The dev team stands by what was released in the core product, and we’re very proud of it, It was important though for us to listen to the community, and a lot of that feedback didn’t come until the game came out. Once we were listening we decided to include the extended cut. It wasn’t in the game because we didn’t know there was such a huge demand for it, to be honest with you.
While a lot of the outcry regarding the ending was understandable, and as one of the few who actually liked the game’s current choices of ending, I’m glad that they’re focusing on extending its narrative rather than creating a brand new ending from scratch.
Bioware is in between a rock and a hard place. Either they admit the endings sucked out loud, and they were were just trying to milk a DLC(potentially effecting sales of said DLC). Or they go the W.A.S.P. route and make some excuse as to why the poor are starting bon-fires on their lawns, ala “Oh, they just want to spend a little more time with us, they love us too much.” But, we’ll eat it up and hope they learn their lesson from everyone whining so loudly at them this time around. And so the gaming world turns.