“Mass Effect 3: From Ashes DLC will be available at launch for all platforms (at a price of $10, 800 Microsoft Points or 800 BioWare Points). For those of you who have purchased the N7 Collector’s Edition (including the PC Digital Deluxe Edition) you will get this content at no extra charge,” said BioWare’s Mike Gamble.
Please be warned if you continue reading there will be a major surprise spoiled for you about one of the secret squad members that’s included in this Story DLC.
Here are the official BioWare statement’s bullet-points:
- “From Ashes” includes the Prothean squad mate for you to recruit (he’s been in stasis the past 50,000 years), an adventure on Eden Prime where you’ll unearth lost secrets from the past, a new weapon (the Particle Rifle), and an alternate appearance for every squad mate. Note: These alternate appearances are in addition to the ones already advertised in the CE.
- The Collectors Edition has been advertised from the beginning as containing a bonus character/mission, but we were not at liberty to provide the details. The Prothean is optional content that is certainly designed to appeal to long-time fans, which is why he is part of the CE offering (the version many fans would be likely to purchase). Mass Effect 3 is a complete – and a huge game – right out of the box.
- The content in “From Ashes” was developed by a separate team (after the core game was finished) and not completed until well after the main game went into certification.
- The Collectors Edition has been sold out in most places for some time now, and is becoming very hard to find (many players prefer not to purchase the digital version). As such, we wanted to make this content available so that Standard Edition buyers could also incorporate the Prothean into their game.
Well, at least it’s not content already on the game disc, you have to do a 628MB download as you can see in this video.
BioWare’s Casey Hudson further explains to angry fans that:
“It takes about three months from ‘content complete’ to bug-fix, certify, manufacture, and ship game discs. In that time we work on DLC. DLC has fast certification and no manufacturing, so if a team works very hard, they can get a DLC done in time to enjoy it with your first playthrough on day one. On ME3, content creators completed the game in January and moved onto the From Ashes DLC, [which is] free with the Collector’s Edition or you can buy it separately.”
Personally I think since they planned to include it in the Collector’s Edition, it kind of throws their defense into the water. But it is their project, and the extra earnings (call or nickel & dime-ing us, or not) will fund future Mass Effect games.
Do you agree with launch day DLC? Or do you think story-wise it should have been included as an add-on to the main game?