Mass Effect Trilogy coming to PS3 on December 4, 2012

BioWare has confirmed that Mass Effect Trilogy, a compilation of all three Mass Effect games in one box, will arrive on PlayStation 3 on December 4, 2012 – about a month after its release for Xbox 360 and PC on November 6, 2012.

Despite working on the trilogy last April, BioWare and the external development team Edge of Reality ran into several problems when building the original Mass Effect for the PlayStation 3.

"There were some complications. The audio technology that we originally used was no longer supported by its developer… and the engine didn’t support the PS3," explained Ryan Warden, External Producer for BioWare Edmonton. "The levels and art assets in Mass Effect were massive and streaming into memory would probably have to work differently on the PS3 – which is NOT a trivial issue."

"Then there was performance. At the outset, we didn’t know what we’d find with Mass Effect, and wouldn’t know until we were hip deep in development. We needed to see the game in motion to make fixes, and fixing performance issues isn’t easy."

At the end of the day, BioWare and Edge of Reality found solutions to their problems and got the game up and running on the PS3 "pretty damn well."

It has since passed on to manufacturing and now, Mass Effect Trilogy will release on December 4, 2012. PS3 owners will be able to play the original Mass Effect game for the first time, either by getting the Trilogy in stores or downloading Mass Effect as a standalone title through the PlayStation Network.

The PlayStation 3 version of Mass Effect Trilogy will have the original Mass Effect with Bring Down the Sky integrated into the game, both on-disc and on the PSN download. Mass Effect 2 will still have the same DLC on-disc that it was originally shipped with: Cerberus Network; Kasumi; Overlord; and Lair of the Shadow Broker. Finally, Mass Effect 3 will also be exactly as it originally shipped, which means you'll have to download the Extended Cut ending separately.