The announcement of a cooperative multiplayer element into the higly acclaimed singleplayer Mass Effect franchise still seems like an unnecessary distraction to some, but for those with cautious optimism, developer Bioware have published a new Q&A to help clear up some of the unknowns.

It's not good news all around, as it confirms that the PC version of the game -- even the singleplayer game -- will require internet connectivity for verification at launch (but not once you're in the game). It also confirms that cooperative play will be an online-only affair, with no split-screen or LAN offerings), however those are "still on the table" for a possible post-launch patch.

The good news is that -- for those concerned with EA's track record of flicking the off switch on multiplayer for their older games -- the co-op functionality of Mass Effect is likely to still be available long down the road:

We won’t be taking the servers down until we realize that there aren’t enough players playing to warrant keeping them up and when we do take them down, we will make sure there are options so the players who are playing don’t feel abandoned. If anything is a good example, you can see today that Never Winter Nights is still supported and we’ve kept a lot of our servers live on it.

Technical stuff aside, the Q&A also goes into detail on much of the gameplay functionality and how the progress in it can impact your singleplayer tale, so read the whole post for all the details.

Mass Effect 3 is due on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 6th 2012.