Has BioWare lied to us about Mass Effect 3 DLC?

By Mufaddal Fakhruddin on March 8, 2012

Prothean character files already on disc.

Tags: Mass Effect 3

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Fans have been raging over BioWare’s decision to ship a day one DLC for Mass Effect 3, throwing fists of anger at the studio for charging players $10 for an important Prothean character when they could have easily shipped it with the game for free. In response, executive producer Casey Hudson said the DLC was developed after the main game was completed, hence why it was shipped separately from the game.

Apparently, that was a bit fat lie.

Curious fans have been pooking around the game’s installation files on the PC and have found files belonging to the locked Prothean character. The files includes the complete set – from model to animation, to even the character’s dialogues and off-sequence banter. They are off the same size as the non-DLC characters, suggesting them to be the final file set. They are also encrypted.

Further references to the character was found after the game’s Coalesced.bin was decomplied. The Prothean’s HUD and weapon loadouts are mentioned, including the script ids to call when the character is added to the party.

The evidence clearly suggest BioWare had been working on the DLC in tandem with the final game, and just sliced it out of the final version in order to monetize on it later on. Unless there is a clear cut explanation for this, it seems BioWare has got themselves in a pickle.

About Mufaddal Fakhruddin

Mufaddal Fakhruddin is the Editor for IGN ME and thinks writing in third person about himself in an about me section is weird.

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Comments

gef

It was ovious from the start.
Greedy-bastards

greedy cunts.
Budon

This is what video game is all about now.

No more passionate people doing something they like, but a pile of fat
business men with deep pockets who wants to make money on everything.

You can shove your DLC deep.

PS: no wonder why some gamers hack games, this is disgusting.
Obie1970

Of course there are assets on the disc. There were assets for Kasumi, Arrival, and Lair of the Shadow Broker on the ME2 discs. Do you think they repeat the entire development process for each DLC? They know what they are doing for DLC and insert markers into the game so it can be implemented when you download it. From Ashes was a 650MB download and you’re pointing out markers that are the size of a word document. Bad journalism is bad journalism.
Obie1970

Of course there are assets on the disc. There were assets for Kasumi, Arrival, and Lair of the Shadow Broker on the ME2 discs. Do you think they repeat the entire development process for each DLC? They know what they are doing for DLC and insert markers into the game so it can be implemented when you download it. From Ashes was a 650MB download and you’re pointing out markers that are the size of a word document. Bad journalism is bad journalism.
datdude

This author is part of what’s wrong with society. Have absolutely no clue or insight into what you are talking about but voice an opinion as if you do. It’s just noise. Obie 1970 is on the money. Even if Bioware was guilty of what so many idiots are claiming (and they are not), it’s their game and they can do what they want. When you make a game you get to decide the when, where, and how. Period. They spend millions upon millions to develop and advertise the game. The additional character and mission was announced months before launch, although we did not know the character would be prothean. If you didn’t buy the collectors edition, that was your choice, quite whining like a petulant little child. I see the extra mission in the collectors edition as love to true fans who preordered the collectors edition. I applaud Bioware for showing that love. They certainly didn’t have to. They could have waited a month or so and charged everybody 10 bucks. I’m sure they have several dlc packs waiting to go because this was a game that was to be launched last year and was pushed to 2012. That they decided to release one piece early for fans is something to be applauded idiots, not ridiculed. People are never satisfied. When you meet people like this my advice is to just keep walking, they have nothing of note to say. Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something.

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