Mass Effect 3 DLC was completed after certification says EA

Mass Effect 3 DLC From Ashes has come under fire from players who believe the content should have been included on the disc – it’s currently available to buyers of the N7 Special Edition and those who buy it for 800 Microsoft Points/£7.99.

According to publisher EA, the From Ashes add-on wasn’t complete when the game went into certification.

“From Ashes is a 600 MB+ download with all new content, including the mission on Eden Prime, new dialogue options and conversations with Javik, new cinematics, the Prothean weapon, and new appearances for all squad members. All of the above content was completed while the main game was in certification and are not available on the disc,” EA told GameInformer.

“As stated previously, in order to seamlessly integrate Javik into the core campaign, certain framework elements and character models needed to be put on disc. We did something similar with Zaeed and Kasumi in Mass Effect 2.”

Things got ugly for EA and BioWare when a PC gamer supposedly managed to access the DLC by changing some code, but other players have reported that while the character Javik is on the PC game disk, the mission and dialogue isn’t included.

Ex-BioWare staffer Christina Norman spoke at GDC, defending her former employer, and stating that day one DLC is better for players.

“There’s no point in releasing DLC a year after your game has come out when most people have already sold your game back to GameStop three times. That means getting it out early; that means even day-one DLC,” she said (Via Shack News).

“That is a terrible thing to some players. Players rant – they know nothing about this DLC that’s coming out except its name. But then it’s ‘oh this game must be incomplete, the game must be ruined.’ Game developers are not evil. (Some are evil.) But most are not evil.

“We just want to release awesome stuff. Players please, give us a chance. Judge our games based on what they are. Judge the DLC based on what it is. Stop thinking you’re a producer and telling us when and where we should be building our content.”

Mass Effect 3 launched in Europe last week. Read our review here and check out an insider view on how BioWare has changed since selling to EA.

While some people are never pleased with DLC, the argument of getting content out on day one – or very close to release – makes sense. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that there’s a large gap between what publishers think is good for business and consumer experience, and what gamers think about DLC and how it’s delivered. It’s also clearly partly to do with a sense of entitlement a large group of players seem to have, making them believe they are owed everything and know better than the people making the games.