Mass Effect: Andromeda No Single-Player DLC Planned (Rumor)

Kotaku’s Jason Schreier brings us the latest scoop on Mass Effect: Andromeda, and he isn’t exactly a bearer of good news. Citing unnamed sources, he claims that there are no current plans to release any single-player DLC for BioWare’s Mass Effect: Andromeda, nor is there a sequel in the works. This is unfortunate for BioWare fans, but hardly unexpected given Andromeda’s lukewarm reception, the downsizing of BioWare Montreal, and the unveiling of Anthem, BioWare’s new sci-fi franchise that doesn’t really need any additional competition.

An excerpt from the Kotaku article:

Yesterday, a widely shared Facebook post claimed that BioWare had canceled Mass Effect: Andromeda’s downloadable content. The good news: that Facebook post was a hoax. The bad news: they guessed correctly. Mass Effect: Andromeda will indeed not be receiving any single-player DLC, three people familiar with BioWare’s plans have told me.

This will be a drastic departure for the long-running sci-fi series. All three Mass Effect games received single-player content after launch, with expansions like Mass Effect 2’s Lair of the Shadow Broker and Mass Effect 3’s Citadel earning praise for their stories and character development. Fans had expected a similar approach for Mass Effect: Andromeda, but mediocre reviews and animation memes have steered the series in an unfortunate new direction.

In April, as we reported, BioWare scaled down its Montreal studio, whose staff had developed Mass Effect: Andromeda with help from BioWare’s other studios in Edmonton and Austin. The chilly reception to Andromeda led the company to transfer BioWare Montreal’s employees to other projects, including Star Wars Battlefront II, Anthem, and the next Dragon Age. Although a small team remains in place to work on Mass Effect: Andromeda’s multiplayer and patch support (which isn’t done yet), most of BioWare Montreal has moved on.

BioWare also shelved plans for a sequel to Mass Effect: Andromeda, sources said.

While reporting that news, I had been pretty sure that Mass Effect: Andromeda wouldn’t be getting single-player DLC. There are few people left at BioWare Montreal who could even work on it. But I wanted to be more confident, so over the past few weeks I’ve confirmed the news with three sources familiar with the company’s plans, all of whom spoke anonymously so as not to jeopardize their careers. Unless BioWare decides to make some sort of drastic pivot (plans can always change!), Mass Effect: Andromeda will not be getting single-player DLC.