Mass Effect for iPhone is not a prequel but a "side-story"

The Mass Effect game coming to iPhone and iPod Touch is not a prequel, but a "side-story" about an upcoming Mass Effect 2 character, says Bioware.

Forum community coordinator Chris Priestly got to the bottom of it for everyone, and posted the facts:

• BioWare is making a game for the iPhone and iPod Touch based in the Mass Effect universe.

• We were going to announce this, but one of the testers at a focus testing group broke the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and things were revealed before we had the chance.

• The game is going to be available for the iPhone AND the iPod Touch.

• The story of the game is not a "bridging" story between Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2. It is a cool little side-story about one of the upcoming Mass Effect 2 characters. It is not "required reading" to enjoy the core trilogy, but if a fun optional "extra" game.

• The development on this game is being done by a separate, dedicated team with no connection to any Mass Effect DLC development or patches so this is not "the reason there hasn’t been new DLC or patches".

• BioWare and the Mass Effect team want to branch out in a number of ways with the ME universe, and this is just one example of such branching out. We think the iPhone and iPod Touch are exciting new platforms for games, and this game was designed for these platforms from the ground up.

• More information about the this game is coming later this month. None of the info that was leaked is ‘official’ by any means – it was research. We'll have much more information in the future.

Priestly goes on to say that this is just the tip of the iceberg for information on both the iPod/iTouch game and Mass Effect 2 as more information is to be released this month and in June.