Mass Effect Trilogy, which launches for Xbox 360 and PC next week, will come to PlayStation 3 on December 4, BioWare has announced.
The compilation includes Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3. The inclusion of the first Mass Effect marks the game’s first appearance on PlayStation 3. It will also come to PlayStation Network as a download release.
The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the Mass Effect Trilogy include the following download content on-disc: Mass Effect‘s ‘Bring Down the Sky’ DLC (integrated into the game), Mass Effect 2‘s original on-disc DLC (‘Cerberus Netework’, ‘Kasumi’, ‘Overlord’, and ‘Lair of the Shadow Broker’), and Mass Effect 3 original on-disc DLC. The PC version will include the same content, in addition to the ‘Pinnacle Station’ DLC for Mass Effect.
In a blog update, Mass Effect Trilogy external producer Ryan Warden discussed bringing the first Mass Effect to PlayStation 3.
“The original Mass Effect game was built completely differently than its successors, as we’ve learned a lot of lessons since then about how-to and how-not-to build a game,” said Warden. “To be completely honest, I thought that it was unlikely that we could port Mass Effect in less than a year. It might take three years. Maybe even twenty-three!
“Fortunately, the team at Edge of Reality, an external team we’ve worked with in the past on many projects, thought otherwise. So we decided to try.”
According to Warden, the team dealt with “some complications” in porting the game. But Edge of Reality were able to clear them up. Issues included audio, memory streaming, and performance.
By early summer, the game was “running and feature complete,” which was “something that made eyes bug out of heads around the office.”