Mass Effect 2 isn't even out yet, but we don't care. We asked the dev about the final chapter in the trilogy.
"We are already at work on Mass Effect 3," he said, adding, "Building the first bits of the story, putting that together."
Simultaneously, though, BioWare is also working on downloadable content to extend the life and replay value of Mass Effect 2.
"There will be great downloadable content throughout the time that Mass Effect 2 is out there while people are waiting for the third one. You'll always have great stuff. New adventures to play. New things to do," he noted.
So just how soon after the release of Mass Effect 2 will we get that DLC?
"We don't have anything specifically announced yet, but we basically plan for DLC pretty shortly after the release of the game and then a pretty intense schedule of downloadable content throughout," he said. "This is one of the big improvements that we've been able to do for Mass Effect 2. Lots of DLC and lots of really high quality DLC that players can look forward to."
Mass Effect 2 took two years to complete and it already had its predecessor in place as a foundation for engine, story, characters and so on. So the big question, will Mass Effect 3 take another two years or more and if so, might it arrive on some still-unannounced successor to 360 instead? Probably not.
"We always wanted to make sure that we got the entire trilogy of games done within this console's life cycle. We didn't want to take forever with it," clarified Casey. "So we definitely want to make Mass Effect 3 a fairly short turnaround, but also being that it needs to be a tremendous and epic conclusion to the trilogy."
So what can we expect from Mass Effect 3 when it finally does arrive?
"I think the exciting thing in the final chapter of the series is going to be just seeing where everything goes that we started," said Casey, remaining vague. "With Mass Effect and now Mass Effect 2, you'll see when you play it, all of these threads keep going. And not only that, all of the choices you've made too. You made choices in Mass Effect and you'll see those in Mass Effect 2. And it just cascades. And people will see that by the time you finish Mass Effect 2, you'll know that it's your universe -- everything is the way you set it out -- and that all of these things get to come to fruition and some kind of ending in the final chapter."
MovieMiguel.com
