While famed developer BioWare continues to bang out the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMOG for a possible Q3/Q4 2011 release, the company is also looking at one of its current IPs as a possible candidate for another MMOG: Mass Effect. According to series lead Casey Hudson, the concept seems only natural for the Mass Effect universe.
"We've been trying to think of a way that makes sense for people to experience Mass Effect with their friends," Husdon said in a recent interview with Game Informer. "We haven't yet come up with a way to do that, so we don't have anything to announce at this time. But, obviously, multiplayer is something we want to do more of in the future as a company."
He added that many fans actually want a Mass Effect MMOG. "Part of what you're trying to do is save the universe so you can live in it," he said. "That's part of the promise for any great IP. It has to be a world worth saving. Mass Effect has that quality to it. If you get rid of the Reapers and win that, wouldn't it be amazing to just live on the Citadel or just take a ship to Omega? That makes sense."
Right now the Mass Effect team is focused on the game at hand, Mass Effect 3, pushing to make the game bigger than the second installment by using larger skill trees, weapon mods, and more than two endings. It won't feature any multiplayer capabilities, but concepts conceived along the way may be set aside for a possible MMOG spin-off.
Still, if BioWare has a Mass Effect MMOG on the boards, gamers will likely not see it until the next generation of consoles are heading to retail shelves. If we're lucky, the MMOG will arrive on the PC first with consoles to follow later (grin).
