‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ Confirmed For Early 2017

The release window for Mass Effect: Andromeda just got a little narrower while also increasing the wait time. Electronic Arts Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen gave an interview where he ran down the mega-publisher’s release schedule and revealed which quarter the highly-anticipated sci-fi role-playing title for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC will debut.

Jorgenson was interviewed for a conference at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference 2016 when he revealed Mass Effect: Andromeda will be released during EA’s 2017 fiscal fourth quarter. This means the game will be released between January 1 and March 31, 2017.

Here are Jorgenson’s complete comments regarding the Electronic Arts release schedule as transcribed by GameSpot.

“Yeah we’ve got a great year ahead. For the first time I’m trying to dampen down Wall Street expectations, which is a good position to be in. We’ve got our Battlefield first-person shooter coming in the third quarter, and our third party title that Respawn built… it’s called Titanfall… it’s the second title they brought out under that brand.

“Both those are first-person shooter and will be targeted around both fast action-driven shooter market as well as the strategy driven market in the quarter.

“We have all our sports games, we have Mirror’s Edge, a runner game coming out in the first quarter, and then we have Mass Effect, which is a sci-fi action game, in our fourth quarter. So big year ahead and we’re pretty excited.”

This mirrors comments made during Electronic Arts fiscal 2016 third quarter earnings call covered by the Inquisitr. It also serves to narrow the release date for both Titanfall 2 and Mass Effect: Andromeda. The publisher previously stated both would be released in the second half of the 2017 fiscal year, which means anywhere between October 2016 and March 2017. Now it appears Titanfall 2 will be released during the 2016 holiday shopping season, while Mass Effect: Andromeda will hit early in 2017.

The Titanfall 2 launch date is the most surprising, assuming it does release during holiday 2016. Battlefield 5 will likely hit consoles and the PC around the end of October or November. Respawn Entertainment bringing its first-person shooter out around the same time is something publishers generally try to avoid one game in the same genre cannibalizing sales from another.

This is also a huge sales period for the first-person shooter market, where Titanfall 2 will not only compete with the next Battlefield but the next Call of Duty title as well.

Meanwhile, Mass Effect: Andromeda could easily fit as a holiday 2016 release or early 2017 release due to the franchise’s following, so there’s less pressure to get it out in time for the holiday sales rush. BioWare carries enough cache within the Electronic Arts portfolio to release the next edition of the science-fiction role-playing franchise when it is ready.

Previous teasers and leaks for Andromeda appear to give us a look at what to expect from BioWare’s follow-up to the original Mass Effect trilogy. The prevailing theory is that the ship shown in the game’s N7 Day trailer is an ark carrying humanity, possibly out of the galaxy, to escape the devastation from the genocidal Reaper War that concluded in Mass Effect 3.

The trailer also left a pair of dog tags sitting in the cockpit of the ship with the name “Ryder” on them. At the same time, Johnny Cash’s “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky” was used during the game’s E3 trailer. Two “Rider” references over the course of two trailers is likely not a coincidence and sets the stage for a male or female Ryder to be the main protagonist Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Of course, it is also worth noting the Mass Effect: Andromeda E3 trailer ended with a “Holiday 2016” tagline. That means a slight delay.

[Image via Electronic Arts]