Mass Effect 3: Casey Hudson Talks ‘From Ashes’ DLC

BioWare received quite a bit of backlash when the developer announced that Mass Effect 3 would receive day-one DLC that adds an extra companion that would, going by said character’s race, appear to be pretty important to Mass Effect 3‘s story.

The Mass Effect 3 DLC, titled ‘From Ashes’, allows players to recruit a Prothean companion, a race that was thought to have gone extinct thousands of years ago in Mass Effect‘s universe. Fans were concerned that by not including the companion in the base game, gamers who opted not to pick up the DLC would be missing out on a significant portion of Mass Effect 3‘s story.

BioWare was quick to jump to the defense of the From Ashes DLC, explaining that the content was created after the game had already been finished. In an interview with VentureBeat, Mass Effect 3 executive producer Casey Hudson further defended the day-one Mass Effect 3 DLC, saying:

“As a fan, some people fear the worst, and they put their own spin on what they think is happening,” he said. “As a fan, if I believed those things I’d be worried too, because what some people are saying is that we’ve taken all of the lore of Mass Effect out of Mass Effect 3 and it’s only in the DLC, stuff like that.

“Of course that’s not true. In fact, Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the lore, learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers, being able to decide for yourself how all of these things come to an end. The DLC, whether it’s day one or not, is always going to be sugar on top, the extra… You know, the extra little bits of content that tell side stories.

“Even though the character we’re releasing on day one is a Prothean, which is part of a race that’s important to the lore of Mass Effect, his story is still an interesting kind of side thing, and then you get this character that’s good if you want to have him for your first playthrough. But it’s always optional. We would never take stuff out of the core game and only have it in DLC.”

For more from VentureBeat’s interview with Casey Hudson, head on through to this link.

Mass Effect 3 hits retail on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 6 in North America, March 9 in Europe.