Back in December we had reported that Mass Effect 3 might be the last chapter in the story arc. With Mass Effect 2 due to release later this month, developer BioWare discloses that work on Mass Effect 3’s storyline is already underway. It was also revealed that the gap between the second and third Mass Effect games would be covered with downloadable content.
Project Manager of BioWare Casey Hudson stated in an interview to IGN, “We are already at work on Mass Effect 3. Building the first bits of the story, putting that together. 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.”
He further continued, “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.”
Hudson revealed that the third installment would probably release two years after Mass Effect 2 hits markets. He added, “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.”
Mass Effect 2 is expected to unveil for the PC and Xbox 360 on January 26 and 29, 2010 in North America and Europe respectively.