Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut Interview Video

Jessica Merizan: Hey everyone, I’m Jessica Merizan, community manager at BioWare, here to talk to you about the ME3 Extended Cut DLC.

Last March, we released Mass Effect 3, the conclusion to the trilogy and a journey that began almost a decade ago. With the Extended Cut coming out, I spend some time with Executive Producer Casey Hudson and Lead Writer Mac Walters, to discuss what fans can expect, as well as provide a behind-the-scenes look at the creation process at the BioWare studio.

Hey Casey and Mac, thanks for much for joining us.

Casey Hudson: Thanks

Mac Walters: Thank You.

Jessica: I know the community is really interested in talking with you guys. So Casey, when Mass Effect 3 launched, the ending spawned a lot of debate and discussion. Why was that?



Casey: Well, you know, I think one aspect is that it’s tough to let go of a storyline and characters that you enjoy, and the endings didn’t really leave a lot of time to say goodbye to the experience -- so a lot of people just wanted more closure.

Players developed a bond with these characters, and they made some big decisions, so they feel more of a need to get a sense of what the future holds for the Mass Effect series.

Mac: I think when we ended Mass Effect 3, we knew that it was going to be the end of Shepard’s story, but in our minds and our imaginations, the characters were still going to be together -- the characters that Shepard had brought together (assuming he’d kept them alive) -- and maybe that didn’t come across enough; that those characters still had a future and they had a hope going forward.

Casey: Yeah. And in some cases, people feared the worst: that no matter what decisions you make, the entire Galaxy was destroyed; everyone starves to death and so on. Which of course wasn’t our intention -- it wasn’t the way we saw it -- and it wasn’t the intended message that the Mass Effect Universe would end.

People wanted to actually see how their decisions resulted in consequences to the future of the Mass Effect Universe. So players made a lot of big decisions throughout Mass Effect 3, leaving the story with really millions of different permutations on the final state of the galaxy.
But the original scenes in the game didn’t go into detail on speculation on that future, so the endings left a lot to the player’s imagination.

Jessica: So I intentionally haven’t spoken to the community too much, because I want them to hear it from you: What exactly is the Extended Cut?

Casey: So the extended cut is content that players can download, at no extra charge, which expands the endings of Mass Effect 3 through some additional scenes and an epilogue sequence.

So it provides a lot of the closure that players are looking for, and it answers some of the questions that people have been asking; really gives someone a sense of what the future holds, as a result of your decisions throughout the series.

Your final choice is just one part of how the story ends up, but then there’s the whole game and a whole series worth of choices that results in story decisions and a lot of those now are going to be reflected.

Mac: Yeah, I think that it’s a lot easier for people to go in and see “I can see the choices that I’ve made; I can see them playing out in the epilogue and in the extended ending”.

Jessica: Right.

Casey: So the extended cut is not a set of different endings, but rather it’s an expansion of the original story. So we’re trying to put on the screen what we imagined was implied by the original endings and address a lot of the feedback and the questions that we’ve received.

So now in each playthrough, you’re going to experience several minutes of additional content, depending on how your playthrough ends up -- sometimes it’s more and sometimes it’s less -- but it’s drawing on a much larger set of content that we’ve built, because it’s now quite variable.

And it was actually a challenge for us to fit it in, in the two gig download limit for the Xbox.



Jessica: When I played, it didn’t... it really drove home the fact that that last choice wasn’t setting me up for a certain ending, it was setting me up for my final decision, and the ending that I got was reflective of all of my experiences -- whether I played just Mass Effect 3, or whether I played the entire trilogy.

Casey: Yeah, I think that’s going to be the interest with this, is not just reloading your save and seeing what the extended cut does with the one save-game that you might have, but actually playing through, or going back; making different choices; trying entire different playthroughs. Because that’s the only way you’re going to actually see or explore all the content that we’ve built for the extended cut.

Mac: Yeah, I think we knew this had to resolve around: yes, the big choices that you make in the game and small choices (some of them) that you’ve made throughout the series. But really, how does it impact the characters that you know and love? So you’d have that little bit more closure with your friends; with those loved-ones in the game.

Jessica: Right, because it transcends out of the game. They become part of your identity, in a meaningful way.

Mac: Oh yeah, exactly. I mean, it’s important to you to be able to look back at that and go “yep, those are the people that I kept alive, and that’s the world that I kept them alive in”.

Jessica: So I have my saved game, and I want to see the new content with the Extended Cut. Where do I start?

Casey: So, what you do, is you start with a saved-game that’s somewhere before the sequence in the end where you attack the Cerberus base. And then, from there, if you play towards the end, then you’re going to get the Extended Cut experience.

Jessica: One of the things that I get to experience, that I wish that more people could be kind of a fly-on-the-wall at BioWare, is the care and concern that you guys have put into making these decisions, that are so important to the fans, to people like me, and to you guys.

Casey Well yeah, ultimately our passion is entertaining people. So, delighting them with our stories, and giving them amazing experiences and worlds to escape to -- that’s what we love to do. So in this medium, it just wouldn’t make sense for us to make some kind of artistic statement, and then turn our backs on it forever.

There was some feedback that we can’t address. There are people that just outright rejected the whole concept of the endings and wanted us to start from scratch and re-do everything. And we can’t do that, because that’s not our story. We wouldn’t know how to write that story.

What excites us, is the challenge of learning how people consume our stories, and we’re trying new ways of telling stories, so it’s a learning process for everybody. And then incorporating that feedback, that’s how we make our work better.



Jessica: I would really love to find out, where do you guys look for feedback, and how do you use it?

Casey: We read everything that we can get. So we read all over the BioWare social network. Everything from Youtube comments, reviews, blog posts.

Mac: But then we also get sometimes, the less conventional things. Like we were sent several stories from fans about what they wished their characters could do, and it was really well thought out.

Casey: When things are really constructive like that -- even if it’s critical -- it means a lot to us. Because when you think about the artists and writers, all the people here, they work because they are passionate about games, and passionate about making a really great experience for players.

So when they get constructive feedback -- constructive criticism -- they’re actually really excited to do something about it.

Jessica: From what I’ve noticed in the community, I think that you guys have taken a lot of feedback -- positive, or constructive, or critical -- and really worked with that.

Casey Yeah, you know, since we started our forums back in the Baldur’s Gate days, our fan community has been extremely important to us. We owe our success to the people who play our game.

Mac: Yeah, and for me, one of the perks of being a developer is going out to the Cons, or any of the fan events and actually getting to meet the fans. I am always humbled when I meet then and I see how much passion and enthusiasm they have for something that me and the rest of team has created.

And that passion that they have is what I kind of take back with me when I go back to the studio and I start creating. Because really, if you’ve met these people and you know how excited they are, all you want to do is just make something great for them.

Jessica: So do you think that everyone in our community is going to be satisfied with the ending after playing the Extended Cut?

Casey: Well I mean, you can never really completely satisfy everyone. We’ve seen a whole range of feedback. Ranging from people who wanted us to do a total re-do, to people who have concerns and questions about the original endings, to people that actually loved the original endings, and have told us they don’t want us to change anything.

So there’s no doubt that there will be a whole new wave of discussion and debate, and maybe even controversy, but we didn’t do the extended cut because we were trying to make everybody happy and make it perfect. We just saw an opportunity to expand on the things that we felt we could add value to the experience, for those that might appreciate it.

Mac: Yeah I mean, I think the Extended Cut is really more about taking the things that are there, and making them shine even more, rather than trying to change and adapt what’s there to reach out to a broader audience that’s looking for something that just was never intended.



Jessica: Now ultimately, what made you guys decide you wanted to do the Extended Cut?

Casey: I remember when Mass Effect 3 launched, the team was incredibly proud of what they had delivered. And even though we were getting incredible reviews, there was some really tough criticism coming in that was pretty hard on us.

What happened over and over though, in those days, was that people throughout the team would come into my office with ideas, for what they could do for players to address the feedback they were hearing.

So the thing is, we love this Universe as much as the fans do. We’ve been putting our hearts and souls into this for over eight years. And when it all over, we wanted to take a little time to say goodbye to it -- we wanted that as much as fans did.

So we were really happy to have the opportunity to work on the Extended Cut, and it’s been a labour of love to put these extra scenes in, and kind of show a little more of what’s going to happen with the Mass Effect Universe, after we say goodbye to it.

Jessica: I think that the labour of love really shines through in this, and I’m looking forward to talking with people after they have a chance to play the Extended Cut.

Casey: Great! I am too.

Jessica: Thank you guys so much for talking to us today.
Casey: Thanks for coming out.

Mac: Yeah, thank you.