Yesterday Bioware confirmed that there will be DLC for Mass Effect 3 available to buy on day one. Owners of the Collector's Edition and the Digital Deluxe Edition will get it included in their bundle, but everyone else will have to pay. This has prompted a series of angry questions from fans, questions like "if it's playable on day one, why isn't it in the full game?" and "why should I pay more for the complete Mass Effect 3 experience when I've just spent £35 / $60 on the game?"
Mass Effect executive producer Casey Hudson has taken to Twitter to say that the From Ashes DLC pack was put together once the main game was finished at the start of the year. "It takes about 3 months from "content complete" to bug-fix, certify, manufacture, and ship game discs," he tweeted . "In that time we work on DLC."
He later added "DLC has fast cert and no mfg., so if a team works very hard, they can get a DLC done in time to enjoy it with your 1st playthrough on day 1."
Videogamer note that producer Mike Gamble has taken to the Bioware forums to defend From Ashes saying "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."
He also explains their justification for attaching a cost to the pack. "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 SE buyers could also incorporate the Prothean into their game."
He also confirmed exactly what the DLC will contain, and it sounds like it'll be pretty important to Mass Effect fans. It's premature appearance Xbox Marketplace has provided a few slightly spoilery clues, which we mentioned in yesterday's article (now updated with Gamble's info). Don't click through if you're avoiding all ME3 info until release. Mass Effect 3 and the accompanying From Ashes DLC will be out on March 6 in the US and March 9 internationally.
