Mass Effect Annihilation now a June 2018 release

Because these writers were hired to write these books before the game even came out?

The checks have already been made.

Never before have they been delayed tremendous amounts of time to cram in content that should have been rightfully DLC.

Way to go EA. On the brightside i should be finished with ASOIF by then so i might just be able to pick this one up.

I'm aware of the going commission rate, and it's more than I earn in my job. Even if being a multi-award winning author doesn't give them any bargaining power, I wouldn't pay even one extra cent for the side novel of a franchise I planned to kill.

Not for me. I always was content playing the game and didn't see the need to read up on what I missed. I'm still not interested in the novels, but MEA is the first in the series leaving gaping plot holes in the game itself.

sounds as exciting as a bowl of lemon Jell-O.

From the author herself (via twitter):

"For those who are angry about this development: this book has been in the works for 18 months. It was always planned.

"I’m pretty sure I’m allowed to say the premise of the book has been the premise of the book since day 1."

So this is not a replacement for any DLC.

It's possible the book was delayed to add more to the ending which would otherwise have been in DLC. It's also possible that it was pushed back for any number of other behind-the-scenes reasons. EA might have put it on hold while they weighed up the cost of cancelling it vs the cost of going ahead. That would be a very EA thing to do.

Who knows.

I'm bummed that we're getting DLC. But I'm not salty enough to not read the book.

<shrugs shoulders>

1) Some people still seem to be under the impression that this book is being released instead of planned DLC. I was just clarifying.

2) So basically what I just said.

3) How would I know? I'm just repeating a couple of tweets, I'm not an insider.

The quarian ark arrived in Andromeda after a dangerous journey where they encountered and overcame <foreign threat> by working together with the other species on the ark. The book ends with Erry the Elcor saying "Irritated request: Let's not do that again". And they all lived happily ever after!

This is a good point. If Mass Effect Andromeda is truly dead, they would walk away. Even if the author has already been paid, there are costs associated with printing and advertising the book that may not have been paid yet and would require further investment. The optimist in me wonders if the book was delayed in order for its release to coincide with something else that isn't ready now, like the actual Quarian DLC. That would increase interest in both products simultaneously. Delaying a book for a dead franchise would just lead to even fewer sales, so I think there's something else going on. Maybe they're giving time for the hate to die down before sending up a test balloon (book/DLC)  to see if MEA2 should be pursued.

Did the author confirm there were actual rewrites, or is it just that the (already) finished product is not going out until next year?

If they thought they would make more money by releasing DLC for this game than not, then they would have.