【Karen Foster Archives】

Five months.

That's how long it's been since Mass Effect: Andromedalaunched,Karen Foster Archives and that's how long it took BioWare Montreal to admit that nothing more can be done with the ailing game's story mode. Technically, it wasn't even a full five months, as Andromedalaunched on March 21.

BioWare confirmed the decision in an update on the Mass Effect website. The Andromeda corner of the game's universe won't be tossed, but continuing stories will be relegated to special multiplayer missions and other forms of media.

"Our last update, 1.10, was the final update for Mass Effect: Andromeda," the note reads. "There are no planned future patches for single-player or in-game story content."

The multiplayer side of the game -- which, it should be noted, is a source of continuing income thanks to a loot box-driven virtual economy -- will live on. Sometime "in the coming weeks," Andromeda's multiplayer team will have news to share about new "missions, character kits, and what's in store for N7 Day [on Nov. 7.]."

While an end to title updates isn't such a big deal for a game that's been out for close to half a year -- unless a game-breaking bug surfaces, of course -- the announcement also means something else: as had long been rumored, Andromeda's story won't be the recipient of any add-on content.

That's a marked change for BioWare with this series. Each of the previous three Mass Effect games received story-driven content that you could buy after release. More than that, every one of those games saw their first add-on in less time than it took for BioWare to announce Andromedawouldn't be getting any.

It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's been following this saga closely. Going all the way back to the weirdly hyped first post-release patch and awkward public address one week later, it's never felt like BioWare was really on steady footing with this game.

Subsequent reports (via Kotaku) of a fraught five-year development process painted a clearer picture: changes in scope and studio in-fighting had effectively doomed the game while it was still being made. What we ended up with is not what was first conceived, and many players picked up on that immediately.

That right there is your "why." Why is Mass Effect: Andromeda's story officially over just five months after it launched? It would have been nice to see BioWare own this answer outright, but reading between the lines is easy enough: No one wants to spend money on it.

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