Fans of the bestselling action RPG, Mass Effect have some good news coming their way courtesy EA. Electronic Arts has announced a trilogy box-set of the wildly popular games to be available on November 6, 2012 for PC and the Xbox 360, with the PS3 edition coming out “at a later date.”
The set will contain 5 DVDs, 1 for Mass Effect, 2 each for Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 (for PC and the Xbox 360) while the number of Blu-ray discs for the PS3 are not yet known. Also included on the box set is the trilogy’s cover art, which will only feature the male Shepard, however, EA has said that fans of the female Shepard should not be disappointed as EA has something special planned.
Interestingly, PlayStation owners will have a chance at playing the original Mass Effect on their consoles for the first time, as the game was originally published by Microsoft and hence, never released on the PS3. EA also plans on making the original Mass Effect available for download on the PlayStation Network for $14.99, but the date for the release has not yet been announced.
Word on the DLC (Downloadable Content) is that PC gamers will be the ones most blessed. On PC, Mass Effect will include ‘Bring Down the Sky’ and ‘Pinnacle Station’ on-disc. For Mass Effect 2, ‘Cerberus Network’ will be included which features ‘Zaeed – The Price of Revenge’, ‘The Firewalker Pack’, ‘Cerberus Assault Gear’, ‘Arc Projector heavy weapon’, and ‘Normandy Crash site mission’. For Mass Effect 3, ‘Online Pass’ will be included, granting players access to co-op multiplayer.
The Xbox 360 will not be getting ‘Bring Down the Sky’ and ‘Pinnacle Station’, however they are available as stand-alone downloads through Xbox Live. For Mass Effect 2, ‘Cerberus Network’ will be included and ‘Online Pass’ will be included for Mass Effect 3. PS3 DLC content has not yet been revealed. It seems like the PC gamers get the most DLCs, probably to encourage the gamers to actually buy the game instead of pirating it, however, the exclusion of DLCs for the Xbox 360 seem to be a move that wouldn’t go down well with the fans of the franchise.
We wonder as to why EA would release the box-set of Mass Effect when the concluding chapter of the series, Mass Effect 3, was released just this year. Also, one can’t help but wonder whether there will be a “collector’s edition” for the box-set.
