Mass Effect: Legendary Edition project director says multiplayer could make a comeback

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

One of the biggest omissions from the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, at least in my eyes, is multiplayer support. Mass Effect 3's co-op multiplayer component was excellent: Small squads of players pitted against increasingly difficult waves of enemies in a variety of purpose-built arenas, with optional objectives and a final, desperate hold-out for extraction. It's a multiplayer mode I really miss playing.

BioWare elected to cut multiplayer support from the Legendary Edition, saying that the effort required to incorporate it was simply too great. "I think our focus really was on the singleplayer experience and at some point we had to just draw the line," project director Mac Walters said in February. "I love ME3 multiplayer, like I say people are still playing it today, but ultimately I think the product, the overall ME: LE is a better representation of the original trilogy because we're able to focus on those singleplayer elements."

But there may be hope for those, like me, who would very much like to see it come back. In an interview with CNet, Walters said that there's at least room for the possibility.

"I would never say no to that—we want to see what kind of reception the Legendary Edition gets and what the demand for the multiplayer is," Walters said. "And then we'll ask ourselves if we have the resources and time to bring it up to the quality level we and fans want."

The "never say never" style of answer is about as non-committal as it gets, but since it's all we've got right now, I'll take it. And maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I think it's a real, if still faint, possibility. The exclusion of Mass Effect 3's multiplayer sparked genuine disappointment, and if interest in the game doesn't fizzle out in a week, maybe BioWare will decide that the best thing it can do for Mass Effect right now is to give that great multiplayer another chance to shine.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.