Pachter insists Mass Effect coming to PS3

by Ross Miller on Dec 18th 2007 7:45PM

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is all but certain the Mass Effect trilogy is going multiplatform. In the latest episode of GameTrailers' Bonus Round (start about three-fourths of the way into the video), Pachter notes that, given the financial expectations Electronic Arts has with its recently-acquired developer, Mass Effect 2 "has to, has to" come to the PlayStation 3 in addition to the Xbox 360.

More interesting is what Pachter says after his ME2 assertion. "I wouldn't be shocked if Mass Effect One came to the PS3," he said. We aren't sure the exact details of EA's acquisition, but we do know the original Mass Effect was published by Microsoft Games Studio, leading us to assume it was a safely exclusive title. Could EA port and publish the game on Sony's console? We doubt Microsoft would be willing to let that platinum-selling title go without a fight.

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Tags: bioware, ea, electronic-arts, masseffect, michael-pachter, multiplatform, pachter, PS3, wedbush-morgan, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (69)

Not according to the latest EGM and their discussion with BioWare. BioWare specifically state that all 3 will remain exclusive to the 360 and that MS will publish them and both BioWare and EA will credited as developers.
EA doesn’t yet own Bioware (the transfer is ongoing) and EA have to honour the contractual agreements that Bioware have already agreed to.

Pachter admits himself that sometimes he just throws stuff against the wall and hope some of it sticks. He’s the one who said in 2006 of Xbox Live Arcade: “At the end of the day, we don’t play games for social interaction … We play games to escape… Microsoft’s strategy is “absolutely flawed”. He later predicted the PS3 would trounce the 360 in July this year.

I don’t have any issues with the idea of Mass Effect on the PS3 (putting aside for the moment that Microsoft is the publisher), but my concern about future titles going to the PS3 is that it will increase the development times exponentially. If they farmed out the PS3 port to a 3rd party (like Valve did for the Orange Box) I’d be happy as larry.
Mass Effect is a really great game, and the more people who get the play it the happier I’ll be.

I predict that if this is true, than Crackdown, Halo3, Forza 2, PGR4, and Gears of War will also be ported to the PS3.

Stupid predictions are fun!

difference is that all those games aren't developed by companies that are owned by EA. EA multiplatforms everything, so this isn't unreasonable

And I remembering hearing something about how Bioware and Pandemic will still be able to act freely despite being owned by EA. That may be a bit of a stretch, but I doubt Bioware is keen on PS3 development or porting this game.

Isn't Mass Effect 2 supposed to be impacted by the decisions you made in Mass Effect? Not to give anything away, but the repercussions of all of your decisions are not fully felt in the first game. To force one sequence of choices to be cannon would render a game about decision making moot.

i think you can just take your character/party and their equipment into the next games. the main "choice" you make at the end isn't even saved to the file, so I'm guessing you'll have to re-pick that choice at the beginning of ME2

I'd not be surprised by a xbox-gta-3 style highly delayed release.

Besides, there is no hurry to release it on the PS3 now, no one has one. I'd imagine microsoft might consider selling the rights for a delayed release 2-3 years down the track.

i have one...

hmm if no one has one... then i should tell ubisoft and infinity ward that their current million sellers on the PS3 are null and void.

Granted the PS3 has half the worldwide install base the 360 has...doesnt necessarily mean No one has one.

Still though 7 million units sold against 2 other competitors isnt bad...especially when you consider the 360 JUST recently hit 14 million in 2 years and 1 of those years was with no next gen competition.

But then both of those pale in comparison to nintendos mighty 16 million in one year.

Now thats just dang amazing

@JJ:

Can you please show me where has COD4 and Assasin's Creed sold a million units on the PS3?????

Talking out of your ass aren't we ?

JJ your credibility is currently ZERO

put up or shut up

Since 2/3 of games in 360 I am quite interested in (Bioshock and Alan
Wake) will not come to ps3, Mass would be nice. Yet I don't think it will be ported.

Money would have to change hands. MS would have to be given a healthy little pile. EA cannot legally do it without MS's expressed written consent.

Sounds like talking out of his ass to me. The property is tied to MS right now, as would the 2nd and 3rd one. Since everyone has known this, how can he just opine that the game will go multiplatform and ignore the contractual elements to the IP.

Does Michael Pachter provide oral sex regularly to one or all of the JOYSTIQ staffers???

Thats the only reason I can think of why he is consistently posted about on the site and made out to be some sort of expert on the videogame field when his predictions have been the equivalent of throwing a dart blindfolded at a wall of balloons.

JOYSTIQ STOP EVEN MENTIONING THIS DUDE FOR CHRISSAKES!!!

Pachter is crazy. If "killer app" exclusive first party titles like Ratchet & Clank and Uncharted are bombing with under 100k in sales, what makes him think that EA will see it as fiscally viable to re-engineer the engine from the ground up to bring out a late port of an RPG, which traditionally does not do as well? ESPECIALLY if they didn't see it as viable to release Burnout Revenge on the PS3.

EA may be known as the King of Ports (Porterhouse, if you will), however there have been occasions where lust for profits have been tempered by common sense. They killed production on a PS2 version of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, and that left money from a platform with an over 100 million install base on the table.

Mass Effect will not be coming out on PS3. If anything, EA will force them to release it on PC, but a PS3 port would just be throwing money away. (and speaking of money, feel free to pass along that check here, Mr. Pachter, you obviously no longer have what it takes to be an analyst. ;) )