BioWare and Electronic Arts debunked rumors that the expected story DLC for Mass Effect: Andromeda was outsourced and then canceled, but it appears that the controversial title will indeed not be getting a single-player update.
Mass Effect: Andromeda lead designer Ian Frazier previously admitted that it was hard to read all the negative feedback against the latest game in the franchise. With no upcoming story DLC, perhaps he will be reading more of them.
Mass: Effect Andromeda Story DLC Hoax
Rumors on the cancellation of a planned story DLC for Mass Effect: Andromeda started from a Facebook post by an Austrian studio named Sinclair Networks.
The post claimed that BioWare tapped the studio to create three DLCs for Mass Effect: Andromeda, but due to several issues such as heavy critique against the game and staff reductions in Montreal, all outsourced work will instead focus on the developer's next major game, Anthem.
Previous Mass Effect games received single-player DLC after they were launched, so the cancellation was big news for the remaining fans of the franchise. The rumor further gained traction because Electronic Arts placed the Mass Effect franchise on hiatus in May, with BioWare Montreal transitioned into a support studio.
BioWare, however, debunked the rumor, with the game's producer Fernando Melo tweeting that the developer builds its own DLC and patches. Electronic Arts later released a statement that the publisher has never worked with Sinclair Networks and that it has nothing to do with Mass Effect: Andromeda.
No Single-Player DLC For 'Mass: Effect Andromeda'
However, behind all the statements that refuted the Sinclair Networks rumor, there was no information regarding the single-player DLC for Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Apparently, this is because no such update is planned for the game, three sources familiar with the plans of BioWare told Kotaku.
Players were expecting a story DLC for Mass Effect: Andromeda, especially after Mass Effect 2's Lair of the Shadow Broker and Mass Effect 3's Citadel received rave reviews for the stories and character development that they added to their respective base games.
Only a small team in BioWare Montreal remains to work on the multiplayer mode and patch support for Mass Effect: Andromeda, but most employees have been transferred to other projects such as Star Wars Battlefront II, the next Dragon Age, and Anthem. Sources added that there were plans to create a sequel for Mass Effect: Andromeda, but that has been shelved as well.
The confirmation of no single-player DLC for Mass Effect: Andromeda does not entirely come as a surprise, but it is certainly still sad news for fans of the franchise, especially as the game still has several loose ends in its story.
Gloomy Future For The 'Mass Effect' Franchise
With the franchise placed on hiatus and the news of no story DLC for Mass Effect: Andromeda, the future of Mass Effect is increasingly looking like a gloomy one.
Electronic Arts and BioWare even look like they have moved on from Mass Effect, especially with the amount of hype that it is pushing for the upcoming Anthem. This could very well be the death knell of what was once a glorious franchise.
