Bioware's
Mass Effect 3 will be the first title in the popular, space-faring action-RPG series to feature a multiplayer mode, according to announcements leaked in advance of upcoming magazine reports.
Both the
U.S. Official Xbox Magazine and
Australia's PC PowerPlay are teasing
Mass Effect 3 upcoming cover stories in which project director Casey Hudson will detail " the series’ first foray into online gameplay," as PowerPlay puts it.
The revelation follows nearly a year of rumor and speculation surrounding game's inclusion of a multiplayer mode, which started even before the game was
officially announced at last year's Spike TV Video Game Awards.
Since then, various reports have ruled out the possibility of such a multiplayer mode, hinted at the mode's existence via anonymous sources, and teased the pending announcement of such a mode.
The first two
Mass Effect games focused heavily on a branching single-player narrative where player choice can have significant impact on how the story unfurls. OXM promises its next issue will discuss "how [the multiplayer mode] will... work with
Mass Effect 3's beefy solo campaign."
The sequels to both Naughty Dog's
Uncharted and 2K Games'
BioShock added multiplayer modes to their exclusively single-player, narrative-focused predecessors.
Mass Effect 3 is expected to hit store shelves
in the first quarter of 2012.
[
UPDATE: BioWare's Casey Hudson
has Tweeted: "Yes, co-op MP missions for #ME3: they're real, and they're spectacular. Rest assured it's nothing of what you've feared. More soon..."]
