Mass Effect 3 release date may be 2011, well before end 2012

Mass Effect 3 to star Master Chief? Fake boxart alert
Mass Effect 3 will be released before 2012 is over, and possibly in 2011 according to a new interview.

Speaking about the future of Mass Effect 2 and the planned downloadable content, project manager Casey Hudson told IGN that:

We are already at work on Mass Effect 3, building the first bits of the story, putting that together but there will be great downloadable content throughout the time that Mass Effect 2 is out there while people are waiting for the third one. You’ll always have great stuff. New adventures to play. New things to do. We don’t have anything specifically announced yet, but we basically plan for DLC pretty shortly after the release of the game and then a pretty intense schedule of downloadable content throughout. This is one of the big improvements that we’ve been able to do for Mass Effect 2. Lots of DLC and lots of really high quality DLC that players can look forward to.”

And that’s not all, the third sequel is mentioned once again with this statement, “We always wanted to make sure that we got the entire trilogy of games done within this console’s life cycle. We didn’t want to take forever with it. So we definitely want to make Mass Effect 3 a fairly short turnaround, but also being that it needs to be a tremendous and epic conclusion to the trilogy. I think the exciting thing in the final chapter of the series is going to be just seeing where everything goes that we started. With Mass Effect and now Mass Effect 2, you’ll see when you play it, all of these threads keep going. And not only that, all of the choices you’ve made too. You made choices in Mass Effect and you’ll see those in Mass Effect 2. And it just cascades – people will see that by the time you finish Mass Effect 2, you’ll know that it’s your universe — everything is the way you set it out — and that all of these things get to come to fruition and some kind of ending in the final chapter.”

Exciting stuff. Mass Effect 2 will be released on January 26th for Xbox 360 & PC. Just around the corner!

January 20 update: Mass Effect project director Casey Hudson was asked if Mass Effect 3 would come to Xbox 360 and answered: “That was always the intention. The Xbox 360 obviously is the one that’s going to run out of time at some point but you create your character and play through an entire trilogy on that platform.” The game’s obviously also coming to PC.

Shepard’s male voice actor in Mass Effect, Mark Meer, has also confirmed he signed up to do Mass Effect 3 saying: “Assume nothing, but yes, I have a contract. For a trilogy…” But he claims he doesn’t know anything about the story yet, commenting: “In the dark, I’m afraid. At least, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it for the safety of my friends and family.” Sounds like he already knows!

February 2 update: BioWare’s co-boss, Ray Muzyka, has said in an interview that: “I don’t think we’ve announced the timing for the third one yet but I can tell you the team’s already working on it. Our goal is to get it out in a time frame that can maximize the quality for our fans, maximize the commercial success for the company and just make sure we do the right thing overall for the long term for the franchise.”