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Mass Effect Andromeda producer reveals the protagonist's name

It looks like it'll be similar to Commander Shepard's homage to the first American man in space, Alan Shepard.

We finally know the name of the protagonist of Mass Effect Andromeda and her name is Ryder.

I say 'her'. You can actually play as either a male or female, just like in the original trilogy, but this time around the female avatar will be the default.

BioWare's Aaron Flynn confirmed that this would be the case to Eurogamer, while creative director Mac Walters quelled concerns that there wouldn't be an option to switch genders on his Twitter account.

The name was spotted back in November on a dog tag in the N7 trailer. Speculation at the time was that this was the protagonist's name, as it may have been a reference to Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, in a similar vein to Shepard taking his/ her name from Alan Shepard, the first American man in space.

If you haven't watched the trailer yet, do so immediately.

Mass Effect Andromeda appears to be set for a March 31, 2017 release according to Amazon, but we'll definitely see it on PC, PS4, and Xbox One early next year.

Be sure to check out our E3 2016 hub for all the news, videos, screenshots, interviews and much more, live and direct for this year's show.

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