The folks at Destructoid spotted what may be an accidental reveal of the release date for Mass Effect: Andromeda.
An Amazon listing for an art book, The Art of Mass Effect: Andromeda, went up over the weekend. The art book has two important notes. It has a release date of March 21, 2017 and the following description: “Dark Horse will release The Art of Mass Effect: Andromeda simultaneously with the game!”
The date would line up with EA CFO Blake Jorgensen’s conference call last March that the game would be released during the company’s fourth fiscal quarter, which lasts through March 2017. “… And then we have Mass Effect, which is a sci-fi action game, in our fourth quarter. So big year and we’re pretty excited,” Jorgensen had said.
Details on Mass Effect: Andromeda are still extremely sparse. BioWare and EA are planning a massive reveal on November 7 – “N7 Day” to BioWare fans. We can assume we’ll finally get a proper trailer to a game that was originally scheduled to be released this year. Now I’m thinking we’ll also get the release date confirmation, and the start of a five-month long marketing blitz.
This relatively quick turnaround is a similar strategy that Bethesda uses for its massive RPGs. Fallout 4 was announced just before E3 2015, with a surprising release date of November last year. The difference is we already know Mass Effect: Andromeda is a thing. A very highly-anticipated thing.
We know the main character is a unique choice between a brother and sister. Whichever Ryder you choose, the other will still exist. A 4K demo was shown during the PlayStation meeting that revealed our first extended in-game footage. It showed off an ancient alien vault, and an Asari companion.
EA has yet to comment on the art book release date snafu. Expect to learn more on November 7.
