EA kills off BioWare Points, making old Mass Effect and Dragon Age DLC free
Ding dong, the witch is dead.
Back in the bad old days the only way to purchase DLC for Mass Effect and Dragon Age games was by buying BioWare Points, which came in packs of 800 and rarely went on sale. Of course, the DLC didn't retail for 800 points and you'd usually have to buy multiple packs to get everything you wanted, then end up with several hundred points left over just to rub in what a scam the whole thing was.
In an email EA seems to be sending people with BioWare Points still in their account, the publisher has announced the system is finally ending: "We're reaching out to let you know that starting October 11, 2022, BioWare Points will no longer be available as a form of currency in the Origin store. Other currencies like Crystals and Platinum in other BioWare titles remain unaffected."
Some of the add-ons for classic BioWare RPGs that could previously only be bought with BioWare points are now available for free. You can log into Origin and grab DLC for Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3 by selecting the games in your library, clicking on Extra Content, then selecting Get it Free for each one.
While Mass Effect Legendary Edition has all the singleplayer DLC bundled with it, if you own the original versions of Mass Effect 2 and 3 you can now grab essential expansions Lair of the Shadow Broker and Citadel for zero dollars, as well as the rest. For a guide on how to start them, here's Which Mass Effect DLC is best and what order to play them in.
Mass Effect 3's multiplayer DLC packs aren't free, however. For the next three months, you can use up any leftover BioWare Points you may have on them. After October 11, they'll only be available in return for credits you earn in-game. (Or by downloading a money hack, you cheeky devil.)
The email ends by noting, "Don't worry — you'll still have access to any content previously purchased using BioWare Points. We're here to support you if you have any questions on this, just reach out to EA Help."
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Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.
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