New Mass Effect will have online

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I hope they improve on the co op that they had in ME3

I don't understand this obsession with shoving online and coop into everything. And it's even worse when it affects the singleplayer experience like in ME3.

Agreed. Games like ME and DA do not need any kind of multiplayer.

I really enjoyed the online multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 so I'm looking forward to more of that in the next Mass Effect game.

EA is making them

The multiplayer in ME3 wasn't all bad. It was a cheap tacked-on feature that shouldn't have had anything to do with the single player (war assets anyone?), but the mode itself was quite engaging and actually well thought out as a basic horde mode. Hopefully they do something better in ME4

A lot of people liked the co-op in ME3.

But that's not the point. Something like Mass Effect is all about the singleplayer and the story, and all the budget and development time should go into that. A tacked-on MP like this, even if fun, will never be as good as a game with MP as its focus.
And you couldn't even ignore it, you had to play it to make the ending better which is a horrible design choice.

This indeed. The ME3 multiplayer was mildly enjoying for couple of hours but that's it. If they'd only spend the time and resources adding more content to the single player part of the game. Same pretty much goes for the more recent Dragon Age Inquisition. It feels like EA telling Bioware, you need multiplayer otherwise we lose out on a potential 2,5% buyers...

As long as this doesn't impact the development of the singleplayer then i am fine. If this is completely seperate to the singleplayer and doesn't impact the overall product then it's fine. If that's not the case, then i don't want it

Isn't the point to make something that people like though. Also who's to say what any game "should" be? Any game should be allowed to grow and evolve. Ultimately though it's up to the developer to create the game that they want to create and it seems kind of self-centered for people to say that a game "should" be this or "should" be that.

I enjoyed the co-op in ME3. I'm looking forward to more information.

Mass Effect will have a higher budget if they add a multiplayer component. A publisher like EA isn't going to risk millions on a single player only title. I don't see how a multiplayer component would take away development time from the single player. It's not like all of Bioware worked on the multiplayer. They had a dedicated team working on it while the story team did their own thing. I have yet to see a single player focused game suffer from an added multiplayer component.

I disagree completely with the notion that a single player focused game can't have great multiplayer. The Last of Us and Max Payne 3 both had top notch multiplayer, and both of those games were mainly dedicated to the single player. Many would say that Mass Effect 3 managed to do horde mode better then Gears of War, and I would agree.

I agree that it was a terrible design decision to force others to get the best ending. However, it's not like it really mattered all that much in the first place. All the endings were exactly the same.

There is a big difference between a developer evolving their game, and wasting resources on tacked-on features. I'd rather they focus on making the best singleplayer experience, or make an entirely separate multiplayer game. That's one of the reasons why I highly respect Rocksteady.

And yes the devs are completely free to do whatever they want with the game, but we're also free to point out when they do something stupid.

There will always be an impact in situations such as this. The single player component and the multiplayer component both cost money to produce in terms of manpower needed to develop it. Meaning, the money BioWare invested in the multiplayer component could have been money used to bolster single player further. After all, developers cut features all the time in games due to budget/time constraints. This means BioWare could have thrown in an extra feature or two to single player if it wasn't for multiplayer.

"Tacked-on" is a horrible choice of words. The MP was deep and was supported with free dlc for months and months with new maps, weapons, classes, abilities and enemies. The MP did it's job, which was to keep people for selling the game back and to decrease used game sales. This isn't Dead Space 2's MP which was unneccesary and terrible.

You also didn't HAVE to play the MP even if an hour or two would've increased your war assets considerably. I achieved full war assets at 50% readiness just to see if it was possible.

100% agree

I am so tired of all these single player games that get these crappy co-op or mp tagged on.

Well you're assuming that they are wasting resources but unless you are actually there or the developer has come and said this then this is nothing but guess work. I don't see how Rocksteady deserves more respect simply because they're not making a multiplayer portion for their game. They're making the kind of game that they want to make and Bioware are making the game that they want to make, it's as simple as that. You may not care for multiplayer and that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that but that doesn't mean that it's a stupid decision for Bioware to include it in their game.

Not surprised. I actually liked ME3's MP and I absolutely hated the idea of it at first. I do hope it doesn't interfere with the SP this time in that it has any sort of impact on it. That was a bad idea. But if it's a similar co-op MP to ME3, I'll probably play it.

Why does mass effect need online?? It makes no sense

Yeah 100% agree as well... it's so unnecessary.

I think you meant to say "New Mass Effect will have a coin-operated coffee grinder", cause that's what the online for ME3 was.

@The_Last_Ride: I usually never even touch the online component in games, but the one in mass effect 3 was actually pretty fun. Still didn't play it for more than a few weeks, but that's more than I can so for most games multiplayer.

It was a decent multiplayer mode, but for ME it certainly felt like something that didn't necessarily belong. I played it as much as I needed to in order to ensure a good ending. But to be honest, the multiplayer percent system was only one of many issues I had with the ending system for ME3 (along with pretty much everyone else). I've also heard that TLoU's MP mode was actually OK but I see no reason to play it because the SP experience was so freaking awesome.

-Byshop

It doesn't make sense

i played it for the galactic readiness, but that's it

Bioware did great co-op features in Baldurs Gate 1 + 2, and it didn't hurt the singleplayer campaigns at all (to the point where those are still Bioware's best games).

Meanwhile, Mass Effect's squad system would be perfect for co-op play. If they incorporate it into the main campaign well, this could be a good thing.

I'm not surprised nor am I disappointed with the idea, at least not yet.

Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, Galaxy at War was a lot of fun. My only criticism with that is it didn't feature PvP. It would have been great to be able to play as Cerberus soldiers or even forces of the Reapers and fight against the Alliance.

I haven't played multiplayer in Dragon Age: Inquisition and I didn't have to. I got over one hundred hours out of DA: I and loved it, so I'm not fussed with Mass Effect 4 having multiplayer, I just hope they don't lose focus from the single player campaign.

That said, I really put about over 60 hours into ME3 MP.

I have a feeling it wont be co-op this time around, it's probably gonna be pvp multiplayer ME style. There will be two different teams working on the game, one for singleplayer and one for multiplayer so i wouldn't be to worried about the quality of the singleplayer mode.

ME3 multiplayer was extremely good. Having a multiplayer will end up netting them more profits because the majority of people aren't hardcore gamers. And I don't think the single player will be affected badly.

I think you guys are missing the point. You may have not played the MP that much and that's fine, but plenty of other people did. Bioware had weekly community challenges going until a year after release and only one of them was reached. Multi-million Banshee kill challenges and things like that being completed a year later. And the MP even right now, THREE YEARS after release is still going strong. It's takes all of 2 seconds to find a match. That means something and Bioware with all their stats and player time logs knows it. If you don't want to play it then who cares, but to say it shouldn't be there doesn't make sense. It's not going to hurt the SP.

The only time you should put online in an RPG is if it's an online-only MMORPG you plan on supporting for at least five years. No one will be playing ME's online five years from now. Money wasted. And EA and the like have the nerve to charge for microtransactions and such.

Well I got in to Mass Effect far too late to get involved in the Co Op, and by late I mean about 3 or 4 weeks ago, but I heard that the Co Op was pretty good conceptually, but not executed in the best way. I might be in the minority here, but I still think it would be nice to be able to participate in a friends campaign, being able to play as one of the protagonists squad mates but not influence their story without their consent. It would be a fairly interesting way to play the story and would make Co Op a bit more open to players

I do not care about the mp of it but I would like a ME game where the RPG elements is as good if not better than that first. Ustil then, I do not care about mp even if you can play in a friend's story missions.

If it's anything like the multiplayer in Dragon Age Inquisition then I'm not going to even let the mouse cursor move across the option.

i played it, but if it does take a hit like it did with ME3 where they ending was rushed. Then no, i don't want it.

Did anyone really think ME4 would not have MP?