Miscellaneous

Is there going to be episodic content delivered by the Xbox Live?

IGN:
In another interesting tack, Mass Effect is the first game in a trilogy, which, BioWare says, will cover the lifespan of the Xbox 360's five-plus year cycle. When you finish the first game, BioWare plans to upload content in between games in an episodic fashion, filling in the story between games. Thus, when the second big title arrives, fans who stick with the downloads will know exactly what's going on.

And

Jarrett Lee:
One important thing I should clarify: fans who miss some of this episodic installments for any particular reason will not be negatively impacted in their Jarrett Lee:
Bear in mind, exact details about how episodic content will be developed and delivered have certainly not been finalized.

Is Bioware going to charge a fee for the new content delivered by Xbox Live?

Bob McCabe:
This is NOT a prediction or an official statement or anything. Please do not confuse this speculation on my part as "BioWare said!". I truly do not know, and I do not have anyone telling me anything in this regard.

But, I am sure this is something (content-for-cash) MGS and BioWare upper-management will discuss - or maybe they've even already done it.

But if I were *guessing*, I would look at other things that occur with Xbox Live (with other companies) once the 360 comes out, and I would also look at what BioWare has done in the past.

For example, check out what we've done with Neverwinter Nights: patches, new models, new tiles, new music, new voice sets, etc. - those are generally all free. Full-fledged new modules? They typically cost somewhere under $10.

Which BioTeam is working on Mass Effect?

Chris Priestly:
For the most part, teh Mass Effect Team is the team that worked on KotOR. Casey Hudson is the Producer with Leads like Preston Watamaniuk, David Falkner, Scott Langevin, Derek Watts and many many more team members.

How many people are working on Mass Effect?

Posted 07/15/06 04:06:19 (GMT) by Chris Priestly:
As Casey said in a podcast with OXM the team is around 120ish. We do have some team people working on multiple projects, or leads on other projects who stop by with opinions or suggestions and other volunteer test helpers and stuff that sway the numbers from time to time, but 120 is the basic team.

What will the music be like?

Chris Priestly:
It is too early yet to be revealing anything about the score, music or sound for Mass Effect. But don't worry, the Team is very aware that good in-game music is an essential component to making a great game.

And

IGO:
Bioware has a tendency to deliver 110% when it comes to the [music] score. What steps have you been taking to continue that trend? Casey Hudson:
Music will actually be one of the best and most unique parts of the Mass Effect experience. We’ve hired an amazing composer (to be announced soon), and he’s already working on a score that will really blow people away.

Will there be cheat codes for Mass Effect?

Chris Priestly:
Far FAR too early to be thinking about that yet.
Personally, (and I'm speaking as a gamer here, not a Dev) I hope the answer is no. Why? Because if they are there, some monkey will abuse them. Sure, MOST gamers don't use cheats. Or they use them after they have finished the game once to see what they missed ot whatever. But there are some muffinheads out there who use cheats and abuse cheats. For me, if they aren't in the game, then there is no way to abuse them. But again, thats just my opinion, you could be wrong.

Will there be a collectors edition of Mass Effect?

Chris Priestley:
Currently the team is just working on getting the main edition finished and out to your ravening hordes.

It is possible that a collectors edition might be done at some point, but I am unaware of any plans at the time being. But that Casey Hudson is a tricky devil and may have secret plans for collectors editions up his sleve.

If there was a collectors edition, what would people be interested in one including? Something more along the packaging lines, like a t-shirt or art booklet? Or something more ingame, like special content or outtakes?

Again, not that there is one, but what would you like to see in one if there was?

And

Posted 09/26/06 22:46:54 (GMT) by Halojedi20:
Whenever Chris uses soon, i want to die because it means never. Oh no, not at all. Soon means "in the next little while". Never means "you ain't going to see that, not no way, not no how" and I rarely use it as you can't be too sure what may occur in the future.

I do also use "in the future" (farther away than soon) such as "the release date is in the future", "any day now" (really quite close to occuring) as in "you'll learn more about Mass Effect any day now", and in a little while" (relatively soon) as in "soon someone is going to clue in on how I use in a little while".

Is Mass Effect going to be the first chapter of a new saga?

Bob McCabe:
I don't remember us ever really going into a game actually thinking of the story this far in advance. I mean, we're usually saying "We'd like to make a sequel, if someone will let us!" And here we're looking at making a trilogy! It really does open up a lot of potential for, as you put it, subtle suggestions that will take place later in the series. Whee!

And

IGO:
Why was the decision made to spread the story across three games? Will we be seeing all three installments on the Xbox 360? What about PC?
Casey Hudson:
It’s not quite that we’re spreading the story across three games. Instead we’ve designed a story for the first Mass Effect game with its own self-contained, spectacular adventure – complete with a satisfying and definitive ending (several of them actually). But, you can continue playing Mass Effect after the ending, to explore Uncharted Worlds across the galaxy, as well having further adventures in downloadable content.

And we certainly expect to have some huge sequels to Mass Effect as well. So to ensure that the story has somewhere to go after the first game – and to allow it to unfold in amazing and unexpected ways that tie in to the original story – we are making detailed plans for the ongoing story arc as part of writing this first story. Our story plans extend to cover three massive titles.

The reason we’re doing this is that we want to create the biggest and most memorable interactive science-fiction experience possible and that meant being able to not only tell one great story, but to be able to constantly elevate the experience across future adventures in a way that feels like one enormous story.

Players will be able to create a character for Mass Effect, and play as that character through three huge titles and tons of downloadable adventures over the lifetime of the Xbox 360.
There are currently no plans for a PC version.

What genre is Mass Effect in?

Bob McCabe:
Well, when I asked Casey about this he kept saying "Epic Sci-Fi with an immersive storyline set in an incredible science-fiction galaxy. And then he'd go on about inspirations for the game like teh Design styles of Sid Mead or movies like Blade Runner and Alien.

What was your inspiration for Mass Effect?

Bob McCabe:
Anyway, some of the inspirations are the sleek design styles of Sid Mead, and cinematic experiences like Blade Runner and, yes, Guard Dog, Alien. We're looking at a lot of sci-fi classics from that era.

Will the E3 demo video be released on DVD/magazine cover mount?

Jay Watamaniuk:
That is a good question actually and I don’t have an answer for you at this time. I mentioned that HD sizes are pretty crazy in terms of downloads so I would expect if we consider releasing the full demo we would need to make some size and therefore quality of video compromises. Not sure what are plans are on that at the moment.

What will download content be like?

Posted 01/01/07 17:10 (GMT) by Chris Priestly
I think Dan brings up a very important point you all need to remember. BioWare is not new to the downloadable content game. We've been doing DLC for NwN1 for many years now.
Sure, there are companies that will sell horse armor or whatever, but we've always been the kind of company that has sold entire adventures (like Kingmaker, Infinite Dungeons or the Wyvern Crown of Cormyr for example) rather than just single pieces or whatever.
I can't yet reveal exactly the sort of content that we're working towards for release for Mass Effect, but it is all big type stuff. You won't be paying just for a new set or armor or a different color laser beam, you'll be looking at entire planets to explore or hours of side quests or similar type materials.
I'm pretty confidant that when we announce what you'll be able to get for Mass Effect, you'll all see the optional value in getting it if you choose to.