Former BioWare Dev Comments on Missing Mass Effect DLC

Former Bioware producer Mark Darrah recently commented on the reason why Mass Effect: Andromeda ended up not receiving DLC exploring the Quarian Ark like it was initially planned to. His comment sheds light on some behind-the-scenes speculations that fans have harbored for years, as the 2017 BioWare title never received the proper follow-through that players thought it deserved.

Darrah, responding to a comment under his YouTube video covering the timeline for Anthem, a more recent BioWare game that will soon shut down, attributed the lack of Quarian DLC for Mass Effect: Andromeda to conditions that were outside the developer’s control. 

“There was strong pressure from forces outside BioWare to release the people in Montreal working on that,” wrote Darrah while responding to a YouTube commenter comparing the Anthem situation to what happened with Mass Effect: Andromeda Quarian DLC.

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Although the statement is somewhat vague, some fans interpreted Darrah’s statement as referring to pressure from the game’s publisher, Electronic Arts (EA).

“Yeah, that tracks,” wrote X user Liger in response to a screenshot of Darrah’s YouTube comment. “I always figured it was an EA decision to drop the Quarian DLC. Sucks because I feel like having to go get that last Ark and dealing with whatever stopped them from making it to the rendezvous would’ve been an amazing story.”

For years, Mass Effect: Andromeda had essentially been the stopping point in the series after the game was seen as a flop and BioWare moved on to developing Anthem. Some fans felt Mass Effect: Andromeda was rushed and never truly finished. One thing fans commonly point to in support of this idea was the sudden cancellation of single-player content support for the game, as well as BioWare dropping the idea of exploring the Quarian Ark through DLC.

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Darrah’s recent comments seem to confirm a fan perspective that blames EA for BioWare’s troubles by providing additional context that it wasn’t solely BioWare’s decision to abandon Mass Effect: Andromeda in favor of Anthem. EA acquired BioWare in 2007 and owns the company and its intellectual property for various games.

Once viewed among a glorified pantheon of deity-like game developers for its earlier projects, BioWare’s recent reputation has been significantly downgraded in the minds of players and former fans for the way it handled the Mass Effect series and Anthem.

In 2020, BioWare announced that it was returning to development on the Mass Effect series, but there haven’t been many updates since then. The potential Mass Effect 5 project is still thought to be in production, five years later, with speculation suggesting a release date may not arrive until 2028 or later. 

Earlier this year, BioWare confirmed they were now focusing on the game, though a blog post from general manager Gary McKay described progress at a stage that doesn’t “require support from the full studio.”