So, for those of you who don’t know, download codes for a Mass Effect 3 beta were mistakenly given (by someone in Microsoft who may or may not still be employed) to people who signed up for the new dashboard beta. The
beta was supposed to be completely internal and as far as I know the issue was corrected as soon as they found it. People still got a hold of it though, and as a result BioWare has already responded to the leak. Here is a statement by BioWare’s Jesse Houston, posted by IGN.com about the leak:
“As most of you know by now, this evening an accidental leak occurred of some early Mass Effect 3 beta code. Microsoft has advised us that through human error at their end, content which was meant for internal beta testing was flagged incorrectly and released to individuals who had signed up for the beta of the Xbox Live dashboard update. It has since been taken down and deactivated.We’d like to stress that the leaked code is in a rough, unfinished state and was not meant for public release. The content is not final, and is not reflective of the quality of the finished, polished game due for release on March 6, 2012 (March 9 in Europe).One feature that was present in this early build is a set of game play modes that are in development. In the beta code they are referred to as “action mode”, “story mode” and “RPG mode”. We want to stress that these features are still in the early stages of development and will receive considerable iteration and refinement. These modes are designed to give players an even finer degree of control over their game experience than ever before. Whether it be someone who finds the combat difficult but wants to experience the amazing story, someone who wants to focus on the action and combat game play, or fans who want the rich, story-driven RPG Mass Effect experience they’ve come to love – Mass Effect 3 will support all of these options. We’ll have more info in the days ahead!”
I find it amusing how fast they jumped on the chance to say that this wasn’t the full game and that it lacked a lot of polish. I guess gamers still aren’t smart enough to realize a beta copy of a game that is leaked early isn’t going to be as well refined as the release. But, BioWare is just trying to make sure that the hype for Mass Effect 3 doesn’t take a hit from this because people start writing opinions based on part of an unfinished game, so I guess I can cut them some slack.
For those of you interested in what exactly might have been in this closed beta, well screenshots were posted on the NeoGAF forums and you can check out the YouTube video that was posted below: