Mass Effect 3's True Ending DLC Was Never Supposed To Be Free?

Gaming Blend "...much like what Square-Enix did with Final Fantasy XIII-2 or what Capcom did with Asura's Wrath, leaving the game rather hazy at the very end and then later announcing that the "True Ending" would be available for $6.99, EA and BioWare would have done something similar had the backlash not been as cantankerous over so many aspects of Mass Effect 3."

[Baka-akaB]

Was always obvious imo . Wich is why the "dont change it it's art / Stop whining babies" police was ridiculous .

[VanillaBear]

Exactly, if we didn't complain then they would of still done an extended ending....the only difference is we would of had to pay.

Us "whiners"/"cryb abies" are the reason why everyone, INCLUDING the "dont change it it's art / Stop whining babies" police" are getting it for free.

See this kind of thing does make a difference, imagine what people could accomplish against someone like Capcom, Square Enix or Activision.

I still think they had this planned from the start except they didn't expect the uproar and people speaking out about the ending. I think the ending is finished and all they are doing now untill it's "Summer Release" is polishing it a bit more, if they release it now people would know they have held it back so they've had to put it off untill the start of Summer.

[da_2pacalypse]

I doubt Bioware will be releasing the real extended ending. If anything they're going to just make clarifications in the ending... and then release the real ending for a fee... I wouldn't put it past Bioware/EA -_- Money-hungry douchebags...

[SilentNegotiator]

Good thing us "entitled whiners" didn't sit by.

[Game4life]

you mase effect 3 gamers arent entitled to anything. You get what you pay for. Same can be said about other games. You dont like how the game ends well whos problem is that? Its your problem not EAs and biowares

[Sano64]

@VanillaBear
I think it was finished when the game went gold and the only reason it was not disk based DLC is because they couldn't squeeze it all onto a 360 disc

[SegataShanshiro]

Can you explain to the meaning of "Would of" please?

[vega275]

I just want to thank all the gamers who complained loud enough so these company understand we had enough. I just wish we were more unified when it comes to these companies try to rip of off.

Thank you all

[Bleucrunch]

@Cy-wolf your statement clearly shows you have no concept of supply and demand and could never truly be a business man. It's not like only one person didn't like the ending, it was a VAST majority who thought that they ending was terrible and now we come to find out they were going to SELL us an extended ending...if you can't see the fraudulent behavior by Bioware/EA then you are as delusional as your comment. Furthermore to suggest that we pay for what we get well that would only apply if we knew that the ending was going to be terrible, would anyone have bought the game if they knew this ahead of time HELL NO!!! because we did not think that Bioware would do this to the franchise they worked so hard on...But I guess we as gamers need to also realize that Bioware is owned by EA and they have the final say in the matter and because we know how EA is with the BS that they vomit to us the gamers this should not be a surprise.

[Game4life]

@streak I know people dont like the ending. I haven't played mass effect myself since the first one (didnt really like it)I wasnt implying that you knew that the ending would be bad or anything.I was implying that it was your own choice as a consumer to buy a game that (more than likely) was overhyped. You can complain to a company but the way i see it, the game shouldn't be changed just because fans get upset about how bafd the ending was. Thats like saying I should go and get an army of people, go down to square enix and demand that they change the ending of Fial fantasy 13-2 because it was so bad ( basically put you right back where you started) howev er at the same time, it would not surprise me if bioware was holding out on gamners anyway just because they wanted to make abunch of dlc for story.They do love putting out dlc if you know what i mean.

Oh btw i know more about business than you think. This has nothing to do with business to me and more to do ith people just getting pissed.

[TekoIie]

@vanillabear

Lol you enforcing the conspiracy???

[Christopher]

So, screw entitled gamers? Or is anyone going to thank them now?

[Nimblest-Assassin]

Well this is disheartening. Here I am protecting artistic integrity, saying that everyone is entitled to it, believing in the indoc theory, hoping bioware would explain this ending, rather than lots of speculations from everyone. Only to have the truth explained... The ending was incomplete. Was ea willing to degrade one of this gens best franchises, in an attempt to make money? To make the gamer pay for the answers they deserved after5 years? So much was cut from me3.... And I believed them when they said they couldn't make it work? I'm an idiot... This can not be artistic integrity... This is bullsh*t. Vanilla sorry for my ignorance. I was a fool, this was not the true ending. The amount of care Bioware put into the 2.9 games only to screw it up in ten minutes? I thought there was some hidden message.... I'm such an idiot. Ea wanted to screw us again.... And the fact that bioware let them is extremely disheartening... I'm sorry to all those I argued with. I was so stupid.

[cjflora]

Actually, I disagree. While the end result was free DLC, the real outcry should be with these business practices. Gamers shouldn't be crying about the ending of a game with the intent of changing the ending if the intended ending was the creative result. Nobody knew that a planned paid DLC was being released in the future, they were just mad that they didn't like the ending that they got. The only thing this resulted in was them taking DLC that they had already planned to release, and change it from paid to free in order to appease the angry gamers. This won't discourage them from using the same business practice in the future. If we gamers made as much fuss about this type of business practice as we did about the ME3 ending it would show these company's that we won't put up with this business model.

[Baka-akaB]

There is no actual proof , but everything points toward the current ending being done for other reasons that artistic choices , but instead greed and leaks .

Hell this isnt some court , we dont need proofs , the suspicion alone is as good as anything . It's not as if Bioware had no issue shoving the last protean alive as something rather minor , and optional dlc , and wasnt caught lying before about the way that dlc was born and handled .

Among plenty other and too many little lies .

[cjflora]

Right, but was anyone mad at them for creating a bad ending with the intention of releasing paid DLC? No, they were just mad that there was a bad ending. I'm just saying that if we made just as big of a fuss over this business practice as people made over the disliked ending...maybe it would make them rethink things? People are constantly complaining about how BS it is that these companies are doing DLC the way they do, but there is never a serious outcry about it. However if someone doesn't like the ending of a game they are more than willing to make a big deal about it. Just seems to me that this outrage could be redirected to more useful purposes.

[ginsunuva]

What else besides ending extensions would they have to sell as dlc after a game that's the end of a storyline?

[showtimefolks]

i really want to know how bioware feels about all of this mess? They were a very respected developer and cared about their fanbase. EA buying them turn evil? EA buying Mercenary developer and turning them into crap also EA's fault?

i think ea is not the best publisher but some of these developers also should have some balls to stand up for their fanbase

[Baka-akaB]

I dont buy the "it's EA' fault argument" , they have always seemed to have much more power , leeway and freedom than other studios at EA .

And even so there are ways to handle pressure from above . It's unlikely some number crunching exec came along and told them " you need to take the prothean and make it a dlc" ... there are loads of crap they could have invented as a dlc characters or mission .

Hell EA would most likely instead have told them to bring back one or all , of the missing playable chars from me1-2 as dlcs . It would give them even more money .

At most they were probably given instructions to include post end dlcs and a mulitplayer , none of wich should be having a negative effect on the game

[joab777]

So now the bashing starts becauae dlc was supposed to be free. Wow. So was the multi ...and i would have bought it. Unlike asuras wrath, i actually don't mind supporting bioware for a phenomena trilogy and my favorite multilateral in quite some time.

A note to Irrational. Mass effect and bioshock were my favorite world's and characters from this gen. Bioware did an amazing job with it's multiplayer. I'd love to have a similar feature in Infinite. I wish bioshock 2 had done co op instead of competitive...killing endless big daddy's and sisters and splicers...hell ya!

[VanillaBear]

Co-op....even online does not belong in Bioshock

It's a great single player dtory driven game...the sequel felt dumbed down because they wasted their time on the crappy online.

Hell even ME is one I wish they never added the online to, it was tacked on and gets repeative fast. It saddens me they wasted more manpower on the online then the games ending especialy when they had to rewrite it.

Bioshock, along with other single player games like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Half life for example should NEVER have co-op/multiplayer, I mean can't we all just enjoy the way those types of games are suppose to be...amazing single player experiences.

[vallencer]

I would personally love the option to play with a friend of mine in an elder scrolls game though. I understand your point and agree for the most part but wouldn't you be excited to have at least one of your friends join you on an epic quest?? All the other games though I completely agree.

[VanillaBear]

Not really.....I see my friends every so often, I play with them here and there on Uncharted 3/Battlefield 3/Resistance 3....playing a great single player game like the Elder Scrolls lets me escape to this massive fanatsy world away from reality, perfect if things are stressing you out or if you need to relax.....the last thing I would want is my friends making thier mouth go on the mic or crashing my game while I play an Elder Scroll game

Besides think about it logicaly....it's Bethesda, there will ALWAYS be bugs in their games because by the time the next Elder Scrolls game is out they would of used a differen't engine (maybe next gen will be differen't, who knows) so new bugs will have taken the old bugs (which they've fixed) place.

Imagine what it would be like if they wasted time on co-op features, it would dumb down the single player, something which Bethesda have even said.....AND YET theres some people who would still want it in the game. Why ruin the single player just so you can do a few quests with a friend, show off your "new" sword/armor or mess around with them.

Lets not forget that there would also be the equal amount of bugs for the co-op which would make Bethesda focus on the co-op bugs instead of the single player ones.

The thing is though, you, like many others will think it's "exciting" but won't think about this kind of thing long term. It will get boring fast, you and your friends will move on to a proper "co-op" implemented game and the single player gamers will suffer because the game will feed dumbed down because less time was spent on the single player development

[Unbornkirkster19]

Honestly, with the way that Bioshocks story was rooted, multiplayer seemed like a fairly good and interesting idea. I mean they do talk about two factions fighting over each other inside the city..
I also believe that Bioshock 2 had a better single player than the original, after you "kindly kill" you know who, the story just became too strected out in a poor manner
imo..

[vallencer]

@vanillabear

I said the option would be nice. And it would in no way ruin your experience if they decided to add co op in elder scrolls. Hell they could make the main story single player only and the rest co op and I would be fine with that. Just the option would be nice that's all im saying.

[joab777]

I agree with your premise but respectfully disagree about mass effect and bioshock. I thought bioshock 2 was better in every way excpet story (though it was pretty damn good) and the ability to introduce a new setting, hence columbia. And i coud never get enough of rapture. I liked the multiplayer but it didn't grab me. I believe it was nastalgia that had me playing. What mass effect 3 did i thought was brilliant. It could have only been better with some story for the characters. It didn't attempt competitive...great move. But it highlights the brilliance of their enemies and the different layers in each. The co op allows for teamwork, strategy, and run and gun with the different difficulties. The 20 cap was great with all the different characters you can use, it promotes using different ones. The tie in with the game is cool but more could have been done. Halo 4's idea would have worked nice because it's all the different characters that we have fallen in love with that take center stage. Different events each weekend has been great. U get to see different locales, hopefully they add some from prior games. The citadel would be nice too. And the packs are perfect, harkening back to the good old days of saving just enough money to get a pack of upperdeck cards to c if u got david Robinson's rookie card. It is very addictive.

But, like i said, it's all about the characters and the universe i love. This is a great way to continue it. Unlike other multiplayers, people are in love with the characters in this game. There is history and it shows. Bioshock would do well to follow suit, allowing a continuance of time with the characters in columbia. And, u r right, most companies would be better served ignoring multiplayer and i worried about bioware. The difference is that bioware and irrational are triple A companies that know how to make games without allowing their main focus to suffer. If it did, they would axe it. But bioware proved it could be done and i am very thankful for that. Now, to save up for a ressurgence pack, i know I'll get that geth infiltrator this time...i just know i will.

[kevnb]

what world do you live in?

[RememberThe357]

Every time I think EA is headed in the right direction they go and f*ck it up. Every single thing they do is to be slick and squeeze as much money out of you as they can, it's f*ckin pathetic. At least Activition doesn't try to hind it.

But now that I think a little more about it this is good. It means that at least this time EA backed off. Fans got pissed and EA listened. I'd like to see this more in the industry, it feel like a lot of DLC is getting shoved down our throats now days.

[vortis]

The EA Police disagreed with you...better lock your doors, close your windows and hide your wallet.

[Imalwaysright]

" I'd like to see this more in the industry" Me too but we would be called whiners by half the community, even though we're just fighting for our rights as consumers and standing against an a abusive industry.

[glennco]

what would ever make you think EA have changed their ways? all they ever do is reinforce their DLC position. look at tiger woods and the heap of courses released for DLC before the game even came out. you would think in buying a golf game you would get all the course currently available.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

I wish capcom fans was this passionate. They could had gotten so much free DLC.

[pbasson]

we rather boycott all their stuff free game & DLC. fuk em

[devilmaydance]

This article title is very misleading. The argument is based purely on speculation by the author and doesn't offer any proof. Just saying.

[TekoIie]

yeh it actually doesnt really say specifically or offer any proof that the extended cut was going to be "sold" as a normal DLC pack.

Also i love how people above me are trying to take "credit" for saving me 320 ms points. thats maybe £2-3 in the UK and it adds a bit more playability for that price (if it had been properly released for that price then it wasnt a bad deal). Sure we all hate the ending, but trying to say EA planned this and make a conspiracy out of it all is plain childish...

[Legend]

Exactly. Pure speculation.

[ziggurcat]

this is actually the 4th article in about 2 weeks by the same author s******g out baseless conjecture concerning EA.

it started with the RME funding drive being shut down by child's play while EA's funding drive last xmas was allowed (the argument was that penny arcade/child's play was being hyprocritical), followed by a related article claiming EA didn't have permission from child's play for their funding drive - citing a *reddit* (you know, that 100% reliable source that all the news agencies use when reporting on a story?) thread that had someone (who could have very well been trolling) posing as jamie dillion, and ending off the week with an article claiming EA was manufacturing a same-sex debate over their star wars MMO without offering an ounce of proof.

so yeah... this guy is the glenn beck of gaming journalism.

[sjaakiejj]

Sounds like he's out on a personal vendetta against EA. I feel sorry for the guy...

[HunterRose]

I don't know whether that's an insult to Glenn Beck or William Usher.

[pbasson]

is any1 surprised, like really of all the shady moves as of recent from all publishers this should not come as a surprise.

[MrBeatdown]

So, a piece of DLC, which was accidentally uploaded by Microsoft as paid DLC for unknown reasons is proof that EA and Bioware were going to charge for DLC that may or may not exists entirely as the result of fan backlash?

Wow, that is one desperate EA hater. Who needs facts when you've got wild internet speculation!?

[vortis]

Nah dude, Capcom and Square are doing the same thing with their games. YOU DO have to pay for the endings in those other games.

If EA is known for squeezing gamers the way they do then why would it be beneath them to charge for an ending if Capcom and Square are doing it?

Wild speculation? Maybe. Far fetched? Asura's Wrath says "Hi".

[MrBeatdown]

Asura's Wrath is Capcom. Not EA. Just because one publisher does it, doesn't mean they all do it. It's completely unfair to jump to conclusions about what EA does based on what Capcom and Square do.

And I don't know why people have the idea that EA is "squeezing gamers". I've never had to buy DLC to get a complete experience. Looking through the 100+ games on my PS3 trophy list, I can't see a single game that felt lacking due to content being withheld and sold seperately. The sell a lot of DLC, yeah, but I've never felt it came at the expense of the core game. Hell, I've actually gotten stuff like Back To Karkand, Dead Space Extraction, and Medal of Honor HD entirely free from them when the core games those came with already offered enough to sell on their own.

@vortis below

He was speaking about DLC. Every company does DLC. He said nothing about yanking content from a game with the intent to charge for it.

And you still haven't provided a single example of EA doing that. I provided three in which EA actually gave away substantial free content.

[TekoIie]

On teh internetz everyting goez :3

[ziggurcat]

you pretty much summed it up.

[vortis]

Wow, well okay...if you feel EA would never pull a stunt like this then I'll just leave you with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Yeap, EA would never stoop that low.

[vortis]

Meh, people will defend what they like, no point arguing that.

I'm not going to go out of my way to "prove" that EA has anti-consumer policies and that it wouldn't be beyond them to charge for an ending.

Their expiration-set Online Passes (google it up before saying that they don't), and their Origin bans which resulted in losing access to your games online or offline had to be changed because, well, you would lose your games even for being banned on the forums for swearing.

There's a lot of anti-consumer measures by EA and people who defend and say "it's wild speculation" are probably the same people who said DLC would never get to a point where they would charge for endings. I'm just saying, you're not the first to defend a company that doesn't care about you and usually it resulted in the kind of situations we're in now where people are actively fighting against companies like EA and Capcom over DLC and anti-consumer practices.

[MrBeatdown]

No point in arguing, yet you write three more paragraphs arguing?

You mentioned an Origin problem that has since been fixed, and a online pass expiration for old games.

And you still have yet to list even one single game in which EA withheld something that you later had to buy to get the complete experience. I named three examples in which EA has given out, not just free DLC, but free, HD remastered games at no extra charge. I can do even better. We got free Dead Space 2 maps. We got free Burnout Paraside content for a year after release. We got one piece of Mass Effect 3 DLC free, and we are going to get another. On top of that, there isn't a EA game I've played that felt lacking due to DLC not being included.

You seem to want to dwell exclusively on the negatives, and completely ignore what EA does right, which is far more applicible in this case than Origin bannings and online pass expiration dates.

The fact of the matter is that almost every company has it's issues. Microsoft charges people to play online. Ubisoft has it's always on DRM. Activision has it's franchise milking. Every company has their retailer exclusive pre-order incentive crap. By you're logic, every last game company that does something that isn't in the consumer's best interest would cut the ending from the game to sell it as DLC.

The fact is, we're discussing game content being cut to be sold later. I named at least five unique examples of EA giving consumers significant free content. You couldn't name a single example in which DLC was cut to be sold later that was to the detriment of the final product.

Sorry if I don't buy into the EA hate, and don't need to wildly speculate on whether or not a free piece of content was at one point going to be charged for so that I can then assume that another piece of content would have been charged for. Fact is, people like you and the author want to find a reason to be upset. EA fixed the Origin ban problem. And they've listened to the ME3 complaints and are addressing them with free DLC. Rather than give them credit, you want to spin it into a negative.

[MrBeatdown]

I love all the disagrees for all my comments, yet not one person can provide relevant examples of how EA cuts content that hurts the final product.

It says a lot about the attitudes of the people here. They want to find fault, and when they can't, they pretend it's there anyway.

It almost makes me feel bad for EA. Here they are trying to do the right thing, and some people would still prefer to manufacture problems based on speculation than accept the simple reality that EA is giving us free content to address our complaints.

Why the hell do people expect EA to listen to it's supposed fans, when all the fans will do is complain no matter what EA does? That's a "can't win" scenario and sooner or later, EA is going to stop bothering all together.

[BigDog55]

Greed is what this is and greed will be there downfall!!

[glennco]

they will buy up and close down many of your favorite studios before their downfall though.

[zekk]

do you have a job? if so would you not like to get paid more for doing your job?

[SegataShanshiro]

you mean "THEIR downfall"? Dear lord, English is not my native language and here i am correcting you. how embarrasing.

[theWB27]

Holy crap another ea/bioware article....so the f what if it wasnt supposed to be free, it is now. I'd think as a reporter i'd want to report on something that EVERYONE isn't already talking about. Some good news. Move along

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

When did SE ever say that the ending to FF 13-2 will be dlc? They said one of the reasons they gave it a to be continued ending is to encourage players to keep playing the game and buying the colliseum and story dlcs. They never said the ending was in dlc format. There will probably be another installment of FF13. It is still a sleazy move by SE either way though.

OT
I dont think the ME3 dlc will be satisfying for everyone unhappy with the ending already. But either way this controversy is getting out of control.

[XishikiX]

It wasn't really more sleazy than ME2, or anything that's had a cliffhanger before.

If it doesn't have a sequal, or it ends up being dlc (I doubt it the dlc so far hasn't really had much content), then maybe... People jumped to conclusions about the there being a DLC ending, when nothing has really suggested that.

I also, don't know if bioware really planned to do any dlc ending whatsoever originally. It does end, albeit anticlimactically, but bleh

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

Well the reason for the FF 13-2 dlc ending rumors is just people misinterpreting something from SE said. People just don't know how to comprehend what they're reading. Or maybe websites just want to get hits by spreading lies and then people just believe them.

[impulse135]

wow u guys are still fighting over the ending.....its all about COD

[modesign]

haha, COD= cheap, repetitive mediocrity.

[sly-Famous]

Damage control!

[WitWolfy]

The point remains, if you promise certain key features that would make the game successful then dont get all pissie when the consumer/fans lash back when you dont deliver. That's all im saying.

[tigertron]

That Shepard is....HIDEOUS!

[mep69]

IMO I think that EA forced them to get it out the door, which evidently caused the ending to (as you saw) be rushed as they ran out of time. Bioware in which case are covering EA's arses as they have been getting bad publicity recently.
It's not the first time a publisher has forced an early release, it was also done to TOR.

[Double_O_Revan]

Hopefully this whole situation will set a precedent and thwart off other companies from doing this kind of crap in the future.

[Kamikaze8]

That's a little but of a stretch. Pretty sure the team didn't plan on changing the ending, only when fans reacted did they decide to do so.

[Tzuno]

Well done Bioware this is how you make money. So easy :) to manipulate.

[mastershredder]

Gee I remember when unlockables and extras used to be free, now gamers/consumers are being duped into thinking it's the norm to squeeze every penny out of a game. The big publishers and N.A. corporate electronic entertainment model is screwing with the creativity and freedom of content creation/inclusion. There are times when it is okay to pay for extras and expansions, as long as they don't tread on the initial intended purpose and playability of a game, which we are seeing more and more.