Downloadable content is a great way to extend a game's life. But can new content to help sell a completely different game?
A new add-on for Mass Effect called "Pinnacle Station" is now available for download on the Xbox 360. Priced at $5, the expansion allows players to explore a remote space station where they'll experience 13 combat scenarios and around 2-3 hours of play.
What makes this new content interesting is that it comes nearly two years after the original Mass Effect was released – Pinnacle Station doesn't extend the life of Mass Effect, it resuscitates it.
The last time Mass Effect fans saw new content was in March 2008, when the "Bring Down the Sky" add-on was released. Compare that to Bethesda's DLC schedule for Fallout 3, which delivered a fairly steady stream of expansions in the months the game first dropped.
Instead, we're seeing a late flood of new downloads. Mass Effect was just recently released as a Games on Demand download at the reasonable price of $20. On top of that, new Mass Effect-themed avatar outfits were also added.
Call me crazy, but this all looks to me like an early awareness push for Mass Effect 2 – a reminder to gamers that, yeah, there was a game called Mass Effect and that there's a sequel coming out soon. Unfortunately EA (now publishing Mass Effect 2 rather than Microsoft) recently announced that said sequel has been pushed back to early 2010.
It's wise to encourage the gaming community to re-engage Mass Effect, since their save files will affect the way things go down in the sequel. But with this much time and space between now and next spring, we might need a couple more reminders.
Image courtesy Microsoft
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