In their latest earnings call, EA’s CFO said their financial situation is comfortable enough that the publishing behemoth can afford to delay the next Mass Effect game by “either a week or three, or four, or five months” if they decide it needs that extra time to get right.
We don’t know much about Mass Effect: Andromeda, since N7 day hasn’t happened yet. Here’s everything we do know.
Here’s the quotation in full via Seeking Alpha, from EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen:
“As you’ve seen, we are willing to make moves in launch date if we feel it’s necessary to deliver the right player experience. And our guidance assumes that Mass Effect continues to be in this [fiscal] year, but it gives us some flexibility that we might choose to move it either a week or three or four or five months if we have to based on what we want to make sure in terms of delivering the right experience for the player. So no news on Mass Effect other than we continue to have it in our guidance. And the moment that changes, we’ll certainly let everyone know.”
This will be welcome news for those who would prefer that games are released when they are completely finished, especially with respect to the Mass Effect series. Or alternatively it’s horrible news for those who don’t care how, just want it now.
For the present, however, there’s no suggestion that such a delay is being considered. Jorgensen went on to say “right now Mass Effect is tracking extremely well, the game looks beautiful, and we’re really pleased with its progress,” suggesting that Andromeda is still on schedule for release in March next year.
But for a game that’s theoretically only four or five months from launch, we haven’t really seen as much of Andromeda as we might expect. If the game really is still on track, we can expect this to be remedied on November 7 – BioWare’s official Mass Effect Day. Personally, I’ll only worry about a delay if nothing substantial is shown then.
The Andromeda Initiative – essentially a mailing list – was unveiled yesterday, a possible sign that BioWare is firing up the hype train in the run-up to a March release. Check back with PCGamesN on Monday for all the N7 Day news.