Late yesterday news broke that EA shelled out the big bucks for both Pandemic Studios and BioWare, leaving everyone wondering what Mass Effect's future will hold. Microsoft was first to make a statement confirming that Mass Effect was on schedule for its November release, but that the IP is wholly owned by BioWare and not Microsoft. Further expanding the discussion Microsoft hinted at the fact that the EA acquisition of BioWare now makes exclusivity of the Mass Effect franchise on the 360 less than concrete saying that they haven't "yet announced specifics regarding sequels to Mass Effect", but will "be talking to EA and BioWare in the weeks to come." Interesting stuff indeed.Soon after, Gamespot posted a Q&A session they had with BioWare's co-founders post EA acquisition where they specifically asked about the future of the Mass Effect franchise, where it was headed and who'd be publishing future titles now that their company is under EA's helm. BioWare's response was less than comforting. "We can't predict the future. We'll see what happens. The key thing is we're making a trilogy of Mass Effect games, and we've got a great story arc." Ouch. Hopefully everything gets smoothed over and Microsoft can strike a deal with EA and BioWare to make sure Mass Effect sequels end up on the 360 and beyond. Because for some reason we have a feeling this Mass Effect thing is going to be big ... really big.
Read - Microsoft's response to BioWare acquisition
Read - Gamespot Q&A
