Electronic Arts has reportedly pushed back the release of the unannounced remastered Mass Effect trilogy, supposedly titled Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, to early next year.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition was initially planned to launch in October, but publisher Electronic Arts and developer BioWare have delayed the release to early 2021, VentureBeat reported, citing sources familiar with the game’s development.
The remastered trilogy, which appeared earlier this month on the website of a Portuguese retailer, has been a rumored possibility for the Mass Effect series for years, even before the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda in March 2017.
However, according to the VentureBeat report, in addition to the pandemic, the first Mass Effect game is holding up the development of the remastered trilogy. The quality of Commander Shepard’s first adventure, in terms of graphics and gameplay, reportedly does not match up to the upgraded Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.
The report added that Electronic Arts will include all the DLC for the three Mass Effect games in the remastered trilogy, but not the multiplayer component of Mass Effect 3. The publisher apparently does not want to make the investment of turning Mass Effect: Legendary Edition into a live-service game.
Meanwhile, it remains unclear if Electronic Arts will bring Mass Effect: Legendary Edition to the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, which are set to release in November.
BioWare, meanwhile, is also working on Dragon Age 4, which will not launch until at least 2022, and a long-term overhaul of Anthem, to fix the game’s loot experience and progression after a disappointing launch.
