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What You Need To Know About ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’: Release Date, Early Access, Controller Support, Pre-Load And More

By Jovi Figueroa
Published on: 20:45 PST, Jan 7, 2017

Everything you need to know about BioWare’s Mass Effect: Andromeda – release date, pre-load date, early access for EA Origin members, and controller support.

Are you thinking of getting Mass Effect: Andromeda, BioWare’s newest action-RPG third-person shooter and the successor to 2012’s Mass Effect 3? Well here are the things you must know before you tread on.

Dates to remember

First, Mass Effect: Andromeda is the first in the Mass Effect series to bring an open world environment. Mass Effect: Andromeda was first announced at E3 2015 and is now confirmed for a March 2017 release date. Confirmed by Aaryn Flynn, General Manager of BioWare, at the Mass Effect official page, Andromeda will go on sale on March 21 in the U.S. and March 23 in the U.K. Set 600 years after the previous Mass Effect games, Flynn says that Andromeda is their most ambitious game thus far and provides a lot of new elements that will bring the title on board with many AAA titles.

So if you’ve pre-ordered the game or will be pre-ordering soon to play the game as soon as it lands on March 21, VG24/7 reports that pre-loading of Mass Effect: Andromeda starts on March 17, 1 p.m. EDT.

Early (and free) Access

But for those with EA Access and Origin, you won’t even have to wait that long. Game Rant confirms that EA Access trial for Mass Effect: Andromeda will let members get limited early access to the game as early as a week before the release date.

As of writing, early access for Mass Effect: Andromeda have just been confirmed by BioWare through Twitter so we don’t have the full details yet as to how early they say EA Access members will be able to play and what part of the game will they be given access to. Speculations point that those with early access will only get to play multiplayer modes to prevent the players spoiling the plot for non-Access players. We’ll have more details by February when BioWare and EA are preparing for an onslaught of marketing via longer gameplay videos.

It also looks like those who are playing on the PlayStation 4 won’t get their opportunity on the Early Access since EA Access and Origin is only available on the Xbox One and PC.

For players who are just starting on the Mass Effect series, it’s also good to take note that Origin is also letting players pick up Mass Effect 2 for free through their “On The House” promotion, PC Gamer reports. You’ll have three more months, anyway, to introduce yourself to the older installments in the series if you’re planning to start on Mass Effect: Andromeda.

PC players

If you’re on the PC platform, of course there are two things that you’ll need to consider for Mass Effect: Andromeda. One, minimum and recommended specs for Andromeda have yet to be released, but VG24/7 believes that details will be confirmed sometime next month so stay tuned for details.

Two, those who favor playing games with a joystick will be pleased to know that PCGamesN confirmed that Mass Effect: Andromeda will be featuring native controller support on the PC. And what’s even more interesting is that you’ll be able to seamlessly switch between the controller and the mouse+keyboard throughout the game. Keep your controller plugged for roaming around a hub and then easily switch to the mouse to blast an alien head. Easy!

Switch and Season Pass

March 2017 sounds very familiar, doesn’t it? Well, it’s also the release date of the hyped-up Nintendo Switch. But while Nintendo Switch and Mass Effect: Andromeda will be featuring simultaneous releases, we have previously covered that Andromeda is not releasing on the Nintendo Switch. As of now, Michael Gamble, a producer with BioWare, reveals that they are not working on a Nintendo Switch port although “if the Switch launches and everyone’s just yammering for Mass Effect,” their doors are not completely closed.

And when asked if there’s a Season Pass for Mass Effect: Andromeda, Flynn responds via Twitter that Andromeda will not be jumping on that bandwagon. A free DLC, though it seems, is another story.

Mass Effect: Andromeda is releasing for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

[Featured Image by Electronic Arts]

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