Any word on when the next patch is due out?

But, but... it's reasonable reaction!

Dx:MD had the misfortune of being thrown into the hate bandwagon that a lot of people ride without even playing the game; mostly joining the voices in complaining about the (optional) microtransactions. It's a great game that isn't lessened by the option to buy praxis points. What really is a problem is when actual content is removed from games for day-one DLCs or pre-order bonuses, yet having choices in how you spend your money in Dx:MD infuriates people? Inflation is a reality, games are costing more to make, and games have stayed at the same list price for over a decade. Microtransactions are a way to optionally get more $$ from consumers to offset this while giving something in return. But if games go up to $70 at launch, people will complain about that too.

At least with ME:A, I can understand some of the hate. It's very buggy, has poor facial animations, lacks the role-playing and story quality of the original trilogy, and is plagued by fetch quests with the boring mako/nomad which I hoped was gone for good after ME1.

Meh too little too late.  Aside from the hardcore fans that are planning to play the game over and over again most people have already finished and moved on.  The next patch could be the single greatest patch released in the history of gaming and it will still mean nothing to the overwhelming majority of players since they'll never see it.  If they had been pushing out  patches over the last couple of weeks instead of just doing one big patch months after launch maybe some of it would have been salvaged in time to make a difference for folks while they were still playing.

Still, good news I guess for that small percentage of hardcore folks though that will still be playing by the time the patch comes.

For my part I paused my first play through because it just became too painful to carry on playing it. Too tedious and frustrating so I'm hoping this patch will smooth over some of that, but we'll see how much it can do that.

Not necessarily ironic, breaking codes while trying to patch things up is actually quite natural. It's up to the dev however to minimize that or break a code somewhere else that isn't quite as important. There is no such thing as a bug free game ever, regardless how hard you try to make it so.

All those little fractions though don't amount to much of the overall playerbase though.  I'm not just talking about MEA or even the ME series, just games in general.  The largest portion of sales for any game (aside I guess outside online Multi-player and MMO style games) happen in the first two weeks after launch.  That is when the most people are buying and playing the game.  Most people will get the game, play it, then move on to something else.  All the other lurkers and waiters and replayers, etc. are going to be just a fraction of the overall.

And the first two weeks, ME:A was the top seller in the UK (no US numbers to speak of though) so they more than likely made their money.  I think the actual impact comes with paid DLC releases and a potential ME:A 2.  If the DLCs are "meaty" and provide significant content related to say the Quarian Ark (DLC 1), the Jardaan/Scourge (DLC 2, a "Leviathan" type DLC perhaps) and final DLC that deals with the "Mysterious Benefactor" and Jien Garson's murder in somethingt akin to a "Trespasser" DLC from DA:I than I think a lot can patched, added and salvaged.  If its DLC that is superficial like "Kasumi: Stolen Memory" or "Arrival" in terms of content, it will be a pretty tone-deaf response from BioWare and I think it would put the interest in the franchise in jeopardy.  Ultimately, I think they will need to do what they never have with the Mass Effect series and come out with  a "Game of the Year" edition like DA:I in order to stoke any remaining momentum for the next game's release.  Otherwise, yeah, they could be too little, too late and perhaps the only way fans in general would give the series another chance is if Mac Walters is not involved anymore. 

I think we will get it in June/July or August by the latest because I think it is already done for the most part. The quarian bit at the end of the game makes it very clear that this is something we will hear about as is the the not so mysterious ending with the kett that wanted to betray the archon. It seems pretty clear those two are going to show up as DLC and my guess is that the quarians will be the first one because it is made very clear that they are out there and didn't want us to track them down or help them yet. I'm sure that message will be updated once the DLC is out and when you interact with that npc again the message will be different or updated. My guess is that it is mostly done already but they didn't want to discuss it and seem like greedy bastards after the day one dlc they did in ME3.

It always pays off to wait about six months these days. I finished Horizon Zero Dawn a couple of weeks ago, game ran incredibly well, only minor glitches. Most polished open world game I've ever played. But another patch is coming that will add stuff to the screenshot mode and give the option to ditch the awful headgear, GODDAMMIT!!!

Now I wish I had waited some more... minor things, I know, but I took 400+ screenshots and ran around with crappy armor to avoid the ugly headgear. Oh well.

Many games get handy little updates like this down the road. It's not just bug fixes.

It's true though that most people want everything now and buy immediately. And it's those people who make companies all the money. Probably the majority, plenty of people wait for sales, however. I see patches as part of maintaining a favorable reputation, so it's an investment basically. People are more inclined to buy future products if they feel the devs care. So even if a game is buggy on release and many finish it before patching is done, it's reassuring to know that bugs will eventually get fixed. And small gameplay additions like mentioned above further improve the reputation because people perceive it to mean the devs want you to have the best possible experience even if it costs them. CDPR's marketing of Witcher 3 was brilliant. The free DLC stunt they pulled worked like a charm to get people to sing their praises.

The game has been out 6 1/2 weeks now with one patch.  One patch.  A patch made by a third party QA company that was finished before the game even released.

Not sure what BW is doing over there but they certainly don't seem concerned about MEA.  Given the reception and the frankly embarrassing issues the game was launched with I would have expected them to be much more urgent in getting fixes out.  But I can see from their perspective too, they already got their money so piss on the issues.

Sneak peak of the patch ?... Heh, why not teaser, and 4 days later trailer ?
This is just wrong.
Ok, i understand, they are still working on it, but for a God sake it will be really nice to get some more info than "soon".
Communication like in the Stone Age.