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A comprehensive look at the first-month NPD sales figures for three main games in the popular Mass Effect role-playing game series from acclaimed developer, Bioware.
Gamesta.com has a pretty neat title in its sights. Will Fight For Food just launched. This fighting, side-scrolling RPG takes the deep conversation mechanics from games like Mass Effect and puts them in a butt-kicking world like Double Dragon. There's also a demo.
Craig Will of GoozerNation.com found a good deal for Mass Effect 1 & 2 on the PC which is handy because he wanted to get Mass Effect 3 on the PC but his Commander Shepard was stored on the Xbox 360. Also, where should you pre-order ME3 from?
"We’ve all heard the legends of an NES cartridge that was only made for a Nintendo promotional event, or the old Atari 2600 game that was never mass produced, and now they’re worth thousands of dollars. If you got your hands on one of those limited run games decades ago you’d be able to sell it for a fortune today. Unfortunately, most games steadily drop in resale value from the minute they hit the market. Still, there are a few that actually increase in resale price after release, and many..."
"If you are going to Comic-Con this year, you may be very excited to hear that Casey Hudson, and Mark Protosevich will be attending for a panel regarding the hugely-anticipated movie adaptation of Bioware’s Mass Effect. Last year, EA announced that Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures attained the rights to the movie, based off one of the most popular games in the last few years."
Steam is famous for having some ridiculous sales on occasion.
Today hosts one of those sales.
You're gonna want to check out how cheaply you can get Mass Effect 1 and 2 today for PC through Steam.
While everyone was busy gushing over Eitanya's plushified rendition of Garrus from Mass Effect, TK-Nation's Cassandra Khaw took it a step further and investigated the full extent of Eitanya's abilities.
Conclusion? She wants the Okami hat. Bad.
"The first two Mass Effect games have been commercial and critical successes as single-player RPGs. But, could you and some friends shoot it out with the enemies of Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3? That may be the case according to a job listing put up by EA senior recruiter Jeff Goldstein on LinkedIn."
Legendary Pictures have announced they have a Mass Effect movie coming soon, penned by Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend). It's uncertain as to whether it will be based on either of the games, or a new story entirely. I'm in two minds, personally - whilst I love the games, I'm not sure a movie would work given the amount of choices available and that I've become accustomed to the current actors. What do you think? Could it break the movie license 'stereotype', or could it be a sci-fi epic? Post y...
"Wedbush Security Analyst Michael Pachter looks into his crystal ball in this week's episode of "Pach-Attack" on GameTrailers.com to look at the future of exclusives on consoles. With the cost of game development increasing does it make sense for developers and publishers to limit their potential audience to only one game console? He also gives his thoughts on whether Microsoft will come out with their answer to the DS or PSP."
We know there have already been a couple of Mass Effect 2 discounts worth posting about, but this latest one is for those who need the whole Mass Effect saga. Amazon is currently bundling Mass Effect 1 and 2 for $50.
This week only, Amazon.com is again offering "Buy 2 Xbox 360 Games, Get 1 Free" promotion. There's more than 35 Xbox 360 games eligible for this promotion including Fallout 3, Soul Caliber IV, Fable II Platinum Hits, Halo 3, Street Fighter IV, Ninja Gaiden II, Grand Theft Auto IV, Oblivion IV and many others.
"For a limited time, you'll get three Xbox 360 Platinum Hits for the price of two. Offer valid February 7, 2010 through February 13, 2010, or while supplies last, when shipped and sold by Amazon.com. Limit one free Platinum Hit per household. To qualify, check out with three of the Xbox 360 Platinum Hits listed below in your cart. The price of the third qualifying Platinum Hit of equal or lesser value will be discounted during check out."
"Not wanting to be left out after the recent success stories concerning Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed II, Electronic Arts (EA) has today announced that it has set a new record for site traffic at DragonAge.com and new user registrations at its social networking site, Social.Bioware.com. With the release of Dragon Age: Origins, the BioWare community has grown to a record five million registered users, propelled by outstanding word-of-mouth buzz among..."
"With the news of the official restructuring of the Xbox 360 pricing strategy yesterday, it appears that retailers are beginning to take action with their existing stock. Electronic Theatre contacted a number of UK high street retailers today, both national chains and independent retailers, and discovered some quite shocking results."
"The awaited Mass Effect DLC is here which includes a new space station and 13 combat scenarios. This DLC is said to give you 2-3 hours of game but requires Spectre status to even start the mission. It will also access three new achievements for it, bringing the total points to 1200. Here is the official link"
Remember in June, when BioWare was like, "Hey guys, we have some Mass Effect DLC news coming up very soon!"
Then there was nothing, because that news got delayed. Well, here are the first details to arise since that week. We already know a little bit from winter, but the latest development reveals three new Achievements that will be added thanks to the DLC. Now the game's cap has been pushed to 1200 points.
* Undisputed (50 G)
Complete Ahern's survival mission
* N...
""When you're playing the first game, everything that you do is setting a variable so that as the story progresses we know that you did a certain thing on a certain planet, and then internal to the game, we can reference those things," Hudson explained. "Your Mass Effect save game contains all of that information. When you import it into Mass Effect 2, now we can continue mining all that information."
The information pertains not just to what your ending was, but to "literally hundreds of t..."
Do we all remember last year's Mass Effect controversy? While BioWare believe that entire debacle was completely over-blown, they do think that sex scenes in games can help reflect real human relationships in a "sophisticated mature experience".
Go to the source for the full article.
"Go Gamer is offering BioWare's sci-fi RPG Mass Effect for a paltry $9.90, over $40 off the regular price.
The 80% off sale goes through Sunday but rest assured supplies will run out much sooner than the end of the weekend."
""We had something in Mass Effect 1 which we didn't have the time and we didn't think we would do well enough, which is a fight club arena," says lead designer Preston Watamaniuk in the video. Project director Casey Hudson added: "We wanted to be able to give people a much more combat-oriented, lighter-story kind of experience. You're going to go to kind of a casino, gaming, fight club space station.""
More info to stir the simmering pot which is gaming politics. Recently EA CEO John Riccitiello announced that Mass Effect 2 would be multiplatform, but did not specify whether this meant merely the PC version or a PS3 port. When questioned a UK rep stated they do not have any more details at this time on what exactly this comment meant, meaning either one of two things. Either EA is unsure themselves, or they're trying to garner some attention using the rumor.
"EA CEO John Riccitiello has revealed that Mass Effect 2 will appear on "multiple platforms" early next year.
"[In Q4] BioWare will release Mass Effect 2 on multiple platforms," he said during an EA earnings call, referring to the fourth quarter of the company's next fiscal year. In non-business speak, that means a January-March 2010 launch."
"BioWare's sci-fi RPG Mass Effect wasn't quite the epic space RPG everyone was hoping for when it dropped last year, but it looks like retailer Game Stop is looking to sweeten the pot. They've listed on their site a re-release of the game which will have an additional bonus disc."
Well now this is good news. EA recently announced that they will be releasing their games on Steam. Well, now it has been revealed that the DRM protection of SecuROM that EA uses on some of their popular titles will be dropped for users that purchase the games on Steam.
"Just in time for the holidays, Valve announced that, Spore, Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Mass Effect, Need for Speed Undercover and EA SPORTS FIFA Manager 2009 are available now to gamers in North America via Steam, a leading platform for PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world.
In the coming weeks, Mirror's Edge, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, and Dead Space will also be added to the catalog of EA's titles availabl..."
"If you thought that EA might have been humbled by the massive Internet backlash against its use of SecuROM in its recent games, then youd be wrong. Speaking at the Dow Jones/Nielsen Media and Money Conference, EAs CEO John Riccitiello claimed that the whole issue had been blown out of all proportion.
We implemented a form of DRM and it's something that 99.8 per cent of users wouldn't notice, claimed Riccitiello, but for the other 0.2 percent, it became an issue and a number of them la..."
Speaking to Eurogamer Germany, Miles Holmes, lead designer of the upcoming DS RPG Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhead from Bioware, has stated that the developer has expressed interest in the DS, seeing it as one of the ways that it could reinforce their franchises.
The franchises under consideration? Mass Effect, Jade Empire, and Dragon Age.
This is similar to sentiments also expressed by fellow team member Mark Darrah, who has said that BioWare is looking into PSP and Wii developm...
""According to the eloquently named Australian blog, XboxOZ360-gamer, BioWare bigwig Ray Muzyka told Australian 360 magazine that the RPG developer was committed to bringing the Mass Effect trilogy exclusively to the Xbox 360. Yeah, not so much.""
The MTV Multiplayer Blog had a chance to talk to CEOs of BioWare, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. Zeschuk said that BioWare is definitely looking at the iPhone for gaming and Muzyka said that they will still make PC-exclusive games, pointing out the success of Age of Conan and WoW.
"Shack: I'm sure this is a sticky issue, but I want to touch on the copy-protection thing. First of all, how involved are you typically with copy-protection?
Albert Reed: Very little. It's a publisher thing.
Shack: What is your take on the PC piracy issue?
Albert Reed: I think it's a big problem at the sort of financial investment side, how much companies are willing to invest in the PC versions of their game when they're worried that it's just gonna be downloaded for free. It's a pr..."
Game Focus reports that the Mass Effect PC DLC BioWare announced back in April has been delayed. This means that North American PC gamers whove now got their hands on the game will have to wait a bit more.
"PC
Bus Driver, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition, Mass Effect, Stronghold Crusader Extreme
PS3
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Xbox 360
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition
Wii
Death Jr. Root of Evil, Emergency Heroes, Kawasaki Snowmobiles, The Monkey King: The Legend Begins
DS
Metallic Rose Nintendo DS Lite, Super Dodgeball Brawlers, USA Today Crosswords Challenge (GameStop Exclusive)
PSP
World Championship Cards"
"In a presentation to industry analysts today, EA Games president Frank Gibeau revealed that the two series would "see extension" in the publisher's fiscal year 2009, which runs from this April through March of 2009. Gibeau didn't specify whether the extensions would come in the form of proper sequels, side products (such as Burnout Legends and Burnout Dominator), or some other form.
In contrast to Burnout, Skate is a relatively new property. The series debuted last September as part of EA..."
BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka was recently interview regarding the PC version of Mass Effect. He didn't speak about the authentication issue in the interview but he did explain why Mass Effect was first released on the Xbox 360. Mass Effect was supposed to be a Xbox 360 exclusive right from the start but late in the game's development it was decided to develop a PC version as well. As some of you know, the PC version will be getting Bring Down the Sky for free, which is downloadable content and Ray...
Remember my story about Mass Effect for the PC needing to be authenticated every 10 days? Well Bioware and EA have apparently had a change of heart and changed the system. Now you will only need to enter a code when first installing the game and when you purchase additional content. No word on what's happening to Spore.
A lot of PC gamers are pretty excited about these two titles hitting the computer arena, but would you like them enough to check it every 10 days for the rest of your life?
What am I implying you may ask? Well for those of you who have played certain PC games will know that sometimes as a anti piracy scheme a developer will occasionally make you log onto a certain site and activate it via the Internet or you get banned. Well Bioware seem to have taken this method a little too far, making y...
"BioWare has revealed the North American pre-order details for Mass Effect on the PC (also available on the Xbox 360)
According to the press release, those who order from various video game retailers will be getting a discount. Meanwhile those who order from the Electronic Arts Online store will be getting some swag.
According to the press release, gamers who pre-order the game from specialty and online retailers such as GameStop, Amazon.com, and GoGamer.com will be getting US$ 10 off th..."
""Whenever we bring a game to a new platform, we always look at it with reverence and respect. The conversion to PC was something we only thought of doing late in the 360 development," he revealed, although the decision came before Bioware's acquisition by EA last year. "Right now that's it, that's all we've got in development for Mass Effect, just the PC version and the 360," he added, quashing the persistent speculation about a PS3 version."
"Bring Down the Sky adds about 90 minutes of new content, but fans have been less than enamoured with it thus far. Still, a least its free on the PC.
The new PC version of Mass Effect promises improved controls and a slightly slicker experience all-in-all. More soon."
"Minimum System Requirements for Mass Effect on the PC
Operating System:
Windows XP or Vista
Processor:
2.4+GHZ Intel or 2.0+GHZ AMD
Memory:
1 Gigabyte Ram (XP)
2 Gigabyte Ram (Vista)
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 6 series(6800GT or better)
ATI 1300XT or better (X1550, X1600 Pro and HD2400 are below minimum system requirements)
Hard Drive Space:
12 Gigabytes
Sound Card:
DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card and drivers
----------
Recommended System Requirements for Mass..."
"- The BBC reckons sony has an amazing secret game in the works for 2009
- Capcom is developing Dead Rising 2 for mulitple platforms including PS3
- Team ICO's new game has links to Norse myths
- Mass Effect and its Sequels will come to PS3
- Sony already has a in-game version of PS3's XMB up and running
- Netflix will soon offer movie downloads straight to your PS3"
"The winners of the 2nd annual ELANS Awards have been announced and with five awards, this years big winner is BioWare. Their sci-fi RPG Mass Effect walked away with the Game of the Year, Best Art Direction, Best Game Design, Best Writing for a Game Production, and Best Character (Commander Shepard) awards."
"Electronic Arts' open-world racing game Burnout Paradise still has that new-car smell, and the broken bones of Skate have barely had time to knit, but the publisher is already looking ahead to the next installments in those franchises.
In a presentation to industry analysts today, EA Games president Frank Gibeau revealed that the two series would "see extension" in the publisher's fiscal year 2009, which runs from this April through March of 2009. Gibeau didn't specify whether the extensio..."
"BioWare recently announced the coming of Mass Effect to the PC, but they have also released eight new screenshots from the new version as well. They appear crisper and of higher resolution than their Xbox 360 brethren.
(Two additional screens at source due to upload limitations)"
"Not satisfied with making an utter fool of itself over the Mass Effect "controversy," Fox's pathetic attempts to discredit the games industry have reached new levels of ridiculous as it jumps on a recent hypocritical news piece for its site. The "news" source's Web site has published a story (with a stupid headline) that claims research is now blaming videogames for the eventual decline of Mother Nature herself. It only briefly acknowledged the fact that televisions and computers are actually..."
"Today, Microsoft has announced that the first piece of DLC for Mass Effect will be released on March 10th, for 400 Points ($5). Titled Bring Down the Sky, Commander Shepard and crew visit a new uncharted planet, where a Batarian extremist group has hijacked an asteroid station and plans on crashing it into the nearby colony world of Terra Nova. Bring Down the Sky presents a new achievement worth 50 points, and supposedly will give us 90 minutes of heart-pounding action (well see how mu..."
It sure has been a hectic week, with the Fox vs Mass Effect news practically taking over the internet. So what's new this time? Well, it's a shocker. Jack Thompson has emailed Kotaku, stating his opinion over the botched Mass Effect interview and he actually defends the game! Claiming that Cooper Lawrence (the psychologist who slandered the game without having ever played it) is both uninformed ... and a man!
I never thought I'd say this but ... Go Jack!
"With the announcement last week by the NPD that the video game industry has vastly surpassed the movie industry in overall revenue growth, rising by 28.4% compared to the movies meager 1.8% in the U.S., the dawn of a new era is upon us. Video games can no longer be considered childrens toys or a passing fad, like the slinky. It seems that the games with which we grew up and still enjoy today are entering the mainstream of American culture. And kicking a little ass in the process.
The fina..."
"While you frequently hear about people (experts) bashing videogames, it isnt common when one of them actually admits they were wrong. Yesterday, I made a post about the Cooper Lawrence/Fox News/Geoff Keighley incident, where Mass Effect was described as depicting full digital nudity and sex amongst other inaccuracies. Well, it seems that Cooper Lawrence has admitted she was wrong in the New York Times, saying
I recognize that I misspoke. I really regret saying that, and now that Ive..."
If you are behind in the gaming news, you might have missed the recent Mass Effect report on Fox News that basically slandered the game for it's "graphic sex scenes" and "objectifying of women", despite neither the interviewer or psychology 'expert' Cooper Lawrence (who appeared in the report) ever having actually played the game. Gaming journalist Geoff Keighley tried his best to set the record straight and defend the game, but was ultimately ignored by Fox's interviewer.
Well this is wh...
"Keighley, who appeared on the Live Desk segment to defend Mass Effect, was wholly outnumbered and cut short by host Martha MacCallum and a panel of expert critics, whose venomous attacks against the Xbox 360 game were only matched by their obvious ignorance regarding the complexities of Mass Effect, the videogame industry, and the ESRBs software ratings system."
The 'full frontal nudity and graphic sex acts' report run by FOX News is still causing a stir, with angry gamers now turning their venom towards psychologist Cooper Lawrence who gave a damning (and innacurate) overview of the game's supposedly rude content.
Since her comments, Lawrence has seen a severe backlash directed towards her via an Amazon product back for her self-help book.
Click the source for great comments via M&C Gaming.
A few days ago FOX News did a report on Mass Effect.
Needless to say, they were not positive about the game, claiming it had numerous scenes involving "nudity", "sex scenes" and "objectifying of women", and as a result should not be marketed towards children.
Well EA was not happy about FOX's misrepresentation of their game, and have demanded FOX News set the record straight and correct their "serious errors" in regards to their report.
Good for you, EA. Let's hope they get a result.
...
Microsoft is beating its corporate chest this week, shouting from the gaming rooftops that Halo 3 is on its way to 10 million sales, the Xbox 360 has surpassed 17.7 million sales, and Mass Effect has tallied 1.6 million sales in six weeks. Well done, Bill & co. But what of the 360's reliability? Strangely quiet on that topic, eh?
"While some readers may deride the respectability of certain review sources listed on Metacritics pages, theres little arguing with contributing numbers provided by IGN, GameSpot, GameSpy, Game Informer, Edge, 1UP, Play, and Games Radar.
Bearing that in mind, Metacritic has unveiled various "Best" and "Dud" games spread across a host of categories, which are as follows..."
"A little lesbianism goes a long way as the New York Times names Mass Effect its game of the year for 2007. The NYT bestowed Mass Effect with the honor for its "focus on character development, personal growth and moral tension, all fueled by a graphics system created to evoke emotional empathy." Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction was honored for being the shining star on the PS3 and BioShock was named the "best newcomer." There's also digs at Halo 3 and Super Mario Galaxy for being "..."
"Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan Securities Analyst, has taken his stance on the entire situation by stating he believes that Mass Effect will not remain an Xbox 360 exclusive.
Speaking with a panel of others on Gametrailers, Pachter commented, "Trust me, Electronic Arts, when they threw out the 300 million that is multiplatform that is not 360 only. And when asked if it will come to the PS3, he finished with, "It has to, I wouldn't be shocked if Mass Effect 1 came to PlayStation 3."
..."
"In a special Ad Watch column on the Xbox 360 marketing strategy this holiday season, Jeff Bell, Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing for the Xbox 360, has revealed to GameDaily BIZ that sales for BioWare's blockbuster role-playing game Mass Effect are better than perhaps many industry watchers were expecting.
Prediction market the simExchange pegged Mass Effect at around 328,000 units for November (the title released on Nov. 20). That said, in less than three weeks on the market, t..."
Last week, I got off easy; I got away with only putting four of that pretty large list of notables in the title. With the games releasing this week, it looks like that's not possible. This is how you know it's the holidays.
That said, there are plenty of good games that came out last week, coming out this week, and will come out in the upcoming weeks. Console allegiances be damned; we're all gamers, and let's enjoy all these games. Defense Forces need not apply. Support good games!
...
In the next edition of "Let's release some AAA titles early", Mass Effect gets the treatment, being spotted (and purchased) at various KMarts. Mass Effect is also listed as in-stock according to both Toys R Us and Walmart online stores. Mass Effect's release date is November 20th.
Wrong AAA title this week, KMart.
[Thanks to CAG]
"BIZ: So you wouldn't rule out the possibility of it appearing on PS3?
Muzyka: We have no plans currently to pursue that. Our focus is pure and simple; it's to deliver the best game possible for our fans with Mass Effect, and that's an Xbox 360 exclusive. Microsoft's a great partner... and they've really helped build the value of the product and we're proud to work with them."
"Theres something about Mass Effect that has grabbed my attention from the start. Maybe its the alien lesbians, the fact the game looks absolutely magnificent, or just that Im a sci-fi nut and been wanting a massive sci-fi masterpiece of a game for a long time."
"The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has given a "12" rating to Mass Effect on the ground that it "contains moderate violence and one moderate sex scene." Wait, what? What exactly does "one moderate sex scene" mean?"
"The time has come, Mass Effect has finally been given a release date. From the team that brought us Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, one of the Xbox 360s most anticipated games of the year, Mass Effect has finally been given a release date after all its delays."
"The fact that this year's E3 video game conference was supposed to be a lower-budget affair than years past was a point seemingly lost on Microsoft, which rented out an entire (big, nice, fancy, expensive) hotel in Santa Monica to show off its wares. While the entire lineup consisted of more than a dozen titles spanning both Xbox 360 and PC, three in particular caught our eye: 'Fable 2,' 'Mass Effect' and 'Halo 3.'
'Fable 2'
The earliest along of the lot was 'Fable 2,' from gaming legend ..."
Mass Effect has been given the release date of November 2007 during Microsoft's E3 conference Tuesday night. This is disappointing for those anticipating a summer release. Many believed that it would have been released before Halo 3 so the games wouldn't be competing with each other come this holiday season.
"This morning, CVG posted a news story claiming that at a European Microsoft event, Mass Effect was given a release date of September. Fans, of course, immediately began to panic. Before you get in a tizzy, know two things: Firstly, this date may only refer to the European release (so if you live in Europe, perhaps you should set yourself on fire and run around screaming); secondly, a release date has not been confirmed for any region.
On the official Mass Effect message boards, BioWare its..."
"Infiltrator
BioWare says: Infiltrators combine combat and tech abilities, and specialize in killing or disabling enemies at long range. Infiltrators are trained to use OmniTools, but the focus is on decryption and offensive abilities rather than healing. They can train with pistols or sniper rifles, and can learn to wear medium armor.
Vanguard
BioWare says: Vanguards are biotic warriors. They combine offensive biotic abilities and weapons training to quickly take down opponents, and ..."
Some footage from the upcoming XBOX360 title, Mass effect.
![Box shot of Mass Effect [North America]](http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/R2FtZXMvWGJveF8zNjAvUm9sZS1QbGF5aW5nL1NjaS1GaQ==/mass_effect_frontcover_small_3NHUTb31L30k4MM.jpg)