My name is Commander Shepard and I don't approve of this message: Mass Effect: Andromeda won't see the light of day until the first quarter of 2017.
This news arrives after a presentation at 2015's E3 conference where BioWare announced a release date of late 2016. Now, though, according to an investor call by Electronic Arts, the game's publisher, Andromeda won't release until 2017, sometime between January and March.
"We've got a great year ahead," EA's chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said during a Morgan Stanley conference presentation, as reported by a member at NeoGAF. "We've got our Battlefield first-person shooter game coming in the third quarter, and our third-party title that Respawn, our partner, built, it's called Titanfall. We have our Mirror's Edge [Catalyst] runner game this first quarter, and then we have Mass Effect [Andromeda], which is a sci-fi action game, in our fourth quarter."
This seems to follow the trend that no new games ever come out when they're supposed to, signaling either a problem with estimating development time or a lack of communication with just how long it takes to put a good game out there. Most developers are also terrified of a repeat of what happened with Batman: Arkham Knight, which released a PC version last year of a game so buggy that its developer had to yank it from shelves until it fixed those issues.
However, it seems that EA made the decision for the delay, so the decision may have more to do with getting the game out during the financial year, while still allowing more time for its development. For fans, a lot rides on this game, particularly as it is a sequel to a popular trilogy, but will feature a new story not associated with previous games.
We don't know much about Andromeda yet, except that its setting is far away from the familiarity of Commander Shepard's world and will introduce a new set of characters. The game will feature some references to previous games, but for anyone hoping to bump into Joker, Liara, Garrus or Tali again, you're probably out of luck. However, familiar races will return to the game, such as krogans and humans. Andromeda will also feature a multiplayer option.
