Mass Effect 3 Production Already Underway

That’s no typo; With Mass Effect 2 in the can and shipping to stores in two weeks, Bioware says it’s already started working on Mass Effect 3. And what do you do in such an early stage of the game? Figure out the plot, natch. Speaking to IGN, Bioware project manager Casey Hudson said the team is “building the first bits of the story,” adding that “the exciting thing in the final chapter of the series is going to be just seeing where everything goes that we started.”

Hudson suggested that Mass Effect 3 won’t take as long to develop as Mass Effect 2. “”We always wanted to make sure that we got the entire trilogy of games done within this console’s life cycle. We didn’t want to take forever with it,” he said. “So we definitely want to make Mass Effect 3 a fairly short turnaround, but also being that it needs to be a tremendous and epic conclusion to the trilogy.”

Bioware’s also planning some downloadable content to follow Mass Effect 2’s release. We don’t know anything about it, just that it’s coming. Hudson said the plan is to release a little bit of DLC shortly after release, then to follow up with “a pretty intense schedule of downloadable content throughout.” [IGN via USA Today]