Mass Effect 3 - Delayed till 2012

It was a bit of a good news/bad news day, firstly the bad news. EA and Bioware have confirmed that Mass Effect 3 will not be launched Holiday 2011. The game has been delayed until the first calendar quarter of 2011 (Jan - March)

Source :- http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/129/index/7294706/1

To temper our frayed nerves Bioware have released two new screenshots , click the links to see the screenshots :-

http://i.imgur.com/j8sKk.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DeOQb.jpg

Man I hope to be able to walk every single floor of that structure in the first pic.

Hmm, well, I guess I can wait as long as the game turns out great.

It always feels so weird to me to see that Shepard in the pics, I'm too used to my female Shepard. Just can't picture her as a dude anymore.

I'm actually happy it's been delayed. Hopefully it won't be another Dragon Age 2.RK-Mara

i also think this is related to DA2. Possible reasons:

1. They were thinking to release ME3 rushed and unpolished as DA2 and decided not to

2. They were thinking to move resources from DA2 into ME3 after the release but decided to use them to fix DA2

Good, i want a shiny polished product, and I also want time to play SWToR this year, and maybe GW2. BF3, cant forget that either

Mass Effect 2 was delayed too, if I recall correctly. It was pushed from Q4 2009 to Q1 2010.

I'm willing to not get the opportunity to mooch this game from a relative this holiday if we get a solid product at release.

Good, i want a shiny polished product, and I also want time to play SWToR this year, and maybe GW2. BF3, cant forget that either

wis3boi

Im with you on more time to play swtor and some other games..Like gears 3, skyrimm, maybe diablo 3 goes into beta this year..Plenty of games out for me to play.Stronghold, other type games..

Apparently the delay is so Bioware can "tweak it" to appeal to a larger market :roll: according to the head at EA :-

Essentially, step by step, [BioWare is] adjusting some of the gameplay mechanics and some of the features that you'll see at E3 that can put this into a genre equivalent of shooter-meets-RPG, and essentially address a far larger market opportunity than Mass Effect 1 did and Mass Effect 2 began to approach.John Riccitiello

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/04/mass-effect-3-delayed-to-adjust-mechanics-for-larger-market-opp/

Now that could just be marketing speak or it could mean something else. However probably best to reserve judgements till E3 when we will get a better idea what this "tweaking it to address a far larger market" actually means.

I've already seen those and am not upset myself, but those pictures should be hidden by spoiler warning. At least the last one.guynamedbilly

Perhaps you could enlighten me as to how those two screenshots are spoilers ? The first screenshot is a picture of a building on a planet it does not tell you what the building is or what planet it is on. The second picture in no way spoils any aspect of the Mass Effect 3 story line or perhaps I am missing something ? could you explain why you feel a screenshot of returning characters to a game is some how a "spoiler".

Chances are, Kaiden and Ashely will be on the cover art, it isn't that bad to post an official release screen of them.

[QUOTE="guynamedbilly"]I've already seen those and am not upset myself, but those pictures should be hidden by spoiler warning. At least the last one.charmingcharlie

Perhaps you could enlighten me as to how those two screenshots are spoilers ? The first screenshot is a picture of a building on a planet it does not tell you what the building is or what planet it is on. The second picture in no way spoils any aspect of the Mass Effect 3 story line or perhaps I am missing something ? could you explain why you feel a screenshot of returning characters to a game is some how a "spoiler".

Seeing who is going to be rejoining your party seems like a pretty big spoiler to me.guynamedbilly

You are drawing your own conclusions based on what you see from the screenshot. That screenshot does not suggest for a minute that either Kaiden or Liara will be permanent members of your team, you are just surmising they will based on that screenshot. All that screenshot shows us is that Kaiden/Ashley and Liara will be in the game, I would hardly call that a spoiler it has been common knowledge since the release of ME 2 that certain figures were given low key roles in ME 2 so they could have a role in ME 3.

I don't want to ruin the game for anyone and if I thought for a second that the pictures had storyline spoilers in I wouldn't have embedded them. At the end of the day whatever information is put up about ME 3 will be spoilerish.

Erm no it isn't "pretty obvious they will be on your team" there is still quite a bit of debate as to what Liara's role will be in ME 3. Just because there is a PROMOTIONAL screen shot showing Liara standing shoulder to shoulder with Shep does not automatically equate to "is a squad mate". The same goes for Kaidan/Ashley we do not know how big a role they will have in ME 3 this picture does not give us any clue whatsoever you are just jumping to the conclusion that they will be team mates.

When I say it is common knowledge I mean anyone that has played the Mass Effect series will pretty much EXPECT to see Kaidan/Ashley and Liara in ME 3, they were in ME 1 and ME 2 so I hardly think it is any great spoiler that shock horror they are in ME 3 as well. The screen shot just tells us that they are in ME 3 that is it anything else you want to surmise from that screen shot is your own doing.

However since you are so concerned about it I will re-arrange the post slightly so that any one entering can read about the delay and avoid the pictures. But I really think you are being incredibly picky here. These are official screen shots from Bioware and contain absolutely nothing that anyone playing the ME series won't already know.

:'(

/sadface