Mass Effect Annihilation now a June 2018 release

It's possible the novel will give us more clues to the identity of the Benefactor, but we won't 100% discover their identity, likely just create more theories.

Good point.

Since The Lost Ark was a planned release, you'd think BW would have the decency (actually care about the ME fans) to clarify this in their blog announcement for the Annihilation novel release.

Of course they don't do this for us. I wish the blog information officer would be fired (and consider hiring me!). They have been useless for the past year.

As far as I'm aware, only a handful know of the Benefactor:

The Mysterious Benefactor - Obviously they know who they are
The MB's Agent - The one that killed Jien Garson, presumably
Jien Garson - Dead, by the Mysterious Benefactor's hand (via an agent, presumably)
Alec Ryder - Dead
SAM - Locked away in Alec Ryder's memories
Hztch - Presumably a kett as a letter addressed to the benefactor is found at one of their bases

Ah, I see. Sorry for the confusion on my part then. I definitely agree that simply DLC or books can not adequately develop or finish those character's stories and that they need at least another full game to do that. Hopefully once Bioware picks Mass Effect up again like some devs have expressed interest in doing so, they will continue with them to finish their story and then move on to the next protagonist.

If you hope that Initiation and Annihilation (which is the same as The Lost Ark) will finish the Andromeda plot, I think you will be disappointed, because the timeline doesn't fit. The first is a prequel in the Milky Way - likely shedding more light on the Initiative - while the premise of the second is probably simply to tell you what the other races experienced when they first entered Heleus.

From the plot synopsis of either book I don't get any sense, that these books will tell us anything about what the next move of the Kett Empire is and how that conflict ends or whether the Jardaan will be friend or foe (if they were to be encountered in another game) and whether their conflict with the creators of the scourge will be important in the future in Heleus. I mean they could bridge to an upcoming conflict with another faction (Benefactor, Scourge creators) in these books, but they can't solve conflicts for which the player is central.

Which brings me to your question asked earlier here: bsn.boards.net/thread/13501/mass-effect-annihilation-june-release?page=2&scrollTo=915018

The purpose of an expanded universe is - besides earning more money and giving some people additional material in a story setting they like - IMO to explain changed circumstances. BioWare - to my experience - has never simply picked up a story exactly where they left off in the game before. So in this case, we had no Quarians in MEA, but you can be sure that they would be there in a sequel. So you gotta give an explanation for that - which is planned to come with the novel. We also could have faced a different enemy in a sequel, which could be hinted at in an expanded universe. Maybe the next enemies have something to do with the other races being delayed.

Does that mean there will be more MEA in the future? Nope. But there is no reason not to set up everything as planned - just in case they want to continue this story arc in the Mass Effect universe later. Also: why should they cancel books just because their game wasn't received as well as they hoped (BTW: wouldn't that be Titan Books call after buying the rights)?

So I don't get most of the discussions around these novels. Just some more Mass Effect lore coming out which might or might not be interesting for some people. Of course these novels could get more interesting if another game would be announced at any point in the future - which BTW could also be a reason for a delayed schedule: buying them some time before nothing ME related is in the pipeline anymore, which might be the point where questions on ME's future will get louder.

That would be strange, wouldn't it? Different genres are interesting to different people. Not all ME gamers like to read backstories. I for one would love another Mass Effect game, but don't need any novel. I don't see the relation here. I don't think that the sales numbers of any of the existing Mass Effect novels or comics had anything to do with planning another Mass Effect game after they came out.

I don't believe so. A few people seem to be excited over the novels, but the big crowd has long moved on. And why would a significant number of people not having played the game read the novels? No, these won't make the NYT bestsellers. They are niche products at best and don't give any indications as far as expectations for another MEA game goes.

They dropped the ball some 5 months ago and try to pick it up by producing another medium. One that's probably more cost intensive when dropped than it is to publish it anyway. My guess is, the authours already collected their fees and printing costs are a pittance in comparison.

I think so too. If they continue in Andromeda which I think they will, they will almost certainly have the races that were on the Quariank Ark there and just explain it like they explained the Nexus Uprising in MEA. 

Nah, I got yelled at by some here for telling them DLC wasn't happening after Jason's articles came out. I may be an MEA fan, but I abhor the idea of only believing what I want to hear. It seems that MEA did well enough that it either broke even or earned a profit. But that's just not good enough for a major game in a AAA franchise published by a major corporation. So while it may have not been a flop or a financial loss, effectively it probably is viewed as a failure by EA. Not bombed, but compared to expectations, it underperformed. Publishers care about the perceived reception of their big releases as much as they do about how much money it literally generated. For good or ill (I say ill), that metacritic score is super important.

Rockstar never bothered with singleplayer DLC. Most consumers don't even finish a main game's story, and even fewer buy DLC (with diminishing returns for every subsequent piece). It's not really the money printer armchair video game experts think it is. I'm not saying it's dying as a business model, but it seems to have lost its luster for many publishers.


Because of its rushed production issues, it's likely no one was concentrating on planning out/starting production on DLC. Who knows why exactly... trying to figure that out is pure speculation (for everyone!11). The (admittedly few) facts we have point to DLC never being a thing before MEA's release, though. It's possible that had MEA been a hit, EA would've pushed for DLC. But even so, Montreal's fate seemed sealed by the time of the game's release anyway.

Well a lot of people (as seen in this thread) are under the impresion that the novel could actually serve as some tie-in to a MEA2. I believe MEA series is done, but those who are still hanging onto hope have this belief that the novel is just a taste of things to come. 

You never know, they could be the Kett.