(There are no spoilers in this post, but beware the comments.)

When Mass Effect 3 arrives on Wii U, the recent Extended Cut downloadable content will be on the disc, too.

"The extended ending is basically going to be part of the game instead," said series producer Michael Gamble to Siliconera this week. "You won’t have to download it."

The Extended Cut downloadable content tweaked and expanded Mass Effect 3’s multiple endings, finales that came under criticism from fans for not providing enough answers and closure. After the downloadable content is acquired by the player, the endings are seamlessly altered, as if these were the original endings BioWare came up with. We know that’s not the truth, though, but will every Wii U owner?

I asked Electronic Arts if Mass Effect 3 players on Wii U will have the option to see both versions of the ending. In essence, giving the the option to turn back the clock and see the original conclusion designed for Mass Effect 3.

The publisher said it “can’t confirm if that choice will be available,” but hopefully we can sway it.

One hopes EA and BioWare include the option, even if the Extended Cut endings are the default. The changes to Mass Effect 3’s final hours are hardly on the level of Greedo shooting first, but as we’ve seen in film (remember E.T.’s walkie talkies?), revisionism is a slippery slope. Mass Effect 3 isn't a heralded classic enshrined in years of acclaim, and players deserve to know how BioWare decided to close out its trilogy before fans demanded more.

Whether you agreed with BioWare's decision to expand on the endings (hint: I didn't), this option is important.

I’ll make sure to keep my eye on this, and report back when EA has an answer.

(There are no spoilers in this post, but beware the comments.)

When Mass Effect 3 arrives on Wii U, the recent Extended Cut downloadable content will be on the disc, too.

"The extended ending is basically going to be part of the game instead," said series producer Michael Gamble to Siliconera this week. "You won’t have to download it."

The Extended Cut downloadable content tweaked and expanded Mass Effect 3’s multiple endings, finales that came under criticism from fans for not providing enough answers and closure. After the downloadable content is acquired by the player, the endings are seamlessly altered, as if these were the original endings BioWare came up with. We know that’s not the truth, though, but will every Wii U owner?

I asked Electronic Arts if Mass Effect 3 players on Wii U will have the option to see both versions of the ending. In essence, giving the the option to turn back the clock and see the original conclusion designed for Mass Effect 3.

The publisher said it “can’t confirm if that choice will be available,” but hopefully we can sway it.

One hopes EA and BioWare include the option, even if the Extended Cut endings are the default. The changes to Mass Effect 3’s final hours are hardly on the level of Greedo shooting first, but as we’ve seen in film (remember E.T.’s walkie talkies?), revisionism is a slippery slope. Mass Effect 3 isn't a heralded classic enshrined in years of acclaim, and players deserve to know how BioWare decided to close out its trilogy before fans demanded more.

Whether you agreed with BioWare's decision to expand on the endings (hint: I didn't), this option is important.

I’ll make sure to keep my eye on this, and report back when EA has an answer.

Can't see why Wii U players would care.

I liked the new endings way more than the old ones, and judging by the stories of all of the rest of the game being written by multiple people and the original end being written by one guy, I think it's fine that they changed it.

This implies the endings for the extended cut actually alters the three original choices.  They don't.

I'm sure this matters to the five people who have been waiting to play Mass Effect 3 on the Wii U.

Why not remove the patches and bug fixes while we're at it? /sarcasm

The new endings seems to just be longer versions of the old ones........

The new ending was great. It just concluded and answered some of the questions that people may have had. I see absolutely no reason to return to the old ending. I mean, they are the same endings essentially, just the new one goes further and explains more things. What's not to like about it?

They expanded the endings, hardly changed them. If they want to see the old ones, they should just go on youtube.

360 and PC still the only way to play the series as far as I'm concerned.

BioWare can't catch a break. But hey, that's what happens when you try to please everyone.

If someone makes the conscious choice to get Mass Effect 3 for the Wii U they don't care/ deserve to not get DLC.

Uh, they shouldn't because those (original) endings are fucking garbage that don't make a lick of sense.

Extended cut made literally no difference in the terribleness of the endings. Who cares.

Who the fuck would want the original endings?

Actually, here's a better question; Why would anyone buy this on WiiU?

Without ATLEAST Mass Effect 2 to come to the system, it's about on par with going to see the last Harry Potter movie without ever seeing any of the prior films. You can't carry your save over, the events have NO context, the characters are there under the impression that you know who they are... It's fucking pointless.

I can't imagine there are many people clamouring for the less complete versions - and certainly no elegant way of asking which they'll want if you include them. Even just framing the question would be something of a minefield.

I don't understand why you would want the original cut.

It just gets funnier and funnier.

Can't see why Wii U players would care.

@Shaanyboi said:

Who the fuck would want the original endings?

Actually, here's a better question; Why would anyone buy this on WiiU?

Without ATLEAST Mass Effect 2 to come to the system, it's about on par with going to see the last Harry Potter movie without ever seeing any of the prior films. You can't carry your save over, the events have NO context, the characters are there under the impression that you know who they are... It's fucking pointless.

It is extremely silly, but it is EA. They're the ones who advertised it as the "perfect time" to enter the series. Logic never stopped their marketing department from trying to make more money.

I don't get why anyone would buy this on Wii U.

@LiquidPrince said:

I don't understand why you would want the original cut.

I definitely prefer the original endings.

Why would you want to see the endings everyone hated? Christ! is like Bioware can't even try to do right ever apparently.

I have serious doubts that the handful of people who buy this game for this platform would care in the slightest about the endings. EA should comment on whether the single player DLC will be included or not.

Bioware will cave under the pressure of cake-fattened fans used to concurrent having and eating states yet again and will in fact remove the extended cut ending via a further DLC exclusive to WiiU.

Meh don't care

Again who's the person that's been holding out on playing Mass Effect 3 that stoke its they can finally play it on the Wii U? Let's say Nintendo fan never has played previous Mass Effect games, been hearing about this series for years now, having never played the previous games will they even care how it ends?

I don't know who would want to actually play this version of ME3, but know that you are easily getting the worst version. A world without Wrex is a fucked up place.

I prefer the extended endings honestly. I don't believe that the endings as they were before were really BioWare's vision but it's what they had put together in the very limited time they had being most likely pressured by EA to get the game released.

I feel the extended cut endings are better and honestly I would never want to play the game without them. If we had gotten these endings when the game originally came out yeah some folks would've still been upset but I don't think it would've been as big of a backlash as what happened.

@Redbullet685 said:

I don't get why anyone would buy this on Wii U.

I'm going to assume at this point that if you wanted to play the Mass Effect series, you probably would have done so already. Or at least had ample opportunity to the point that this wouldn't be profitable.

Yeah, they should include a way for Wii U owners to see how much they botched the original ending. I'm being serious. They need to see what the hulabaloo was all about, if they even care.

What I think is a bigger issue is that I figure most people buying this for the Wii U will have this as their first Mass Effect game. That's kind of ridiculous, considering the importance of carrying over your decisions from the previous games. And I doubt the new players will be able to create a meaningful enough attachment to any of the Mass Effect characters to get that upset about the ending anyway, especially since many of the characters are already dead by default.

@LiquidPrince said:

I don't understand why you would want the original cut.

I'm sure George Lucas thinks the same way about Star Wars, or Ridley Scott about Blade Runner.

Valve changed the original ending to Portal. Where's the righteous indignation?

I'd actually like an explanation of why Patrick feels the need to have a worse version of the game released? Is it because you don't like Mass Effect (or popular games in general) and would prefer to have a worse version out there? You're not arguing for 'choice' or 'preservation', otherwise you would object to a WiiU port entirely (especially if it adds anything like touchscreen menus or ability switching).

I want to meet this mythical gamer who is buying a WiiU to play Mass Effect. Seriously. Does ANYONE care about this? If your into the new hot 3rd party titles you most likely would have bought a console that plays them or played on PC.

@Evercaptor said:

Bioware will cave under the pressure of cake-fattened fans used to concurrent having and eating states yet again and will in fact remove the extended cut ending via a further DLC exclusive to WiiU.

...ow

Isn't the more important question about if people will be able to choose what choices were from the first two games, and not just go with the default ones? Unless they already confirmed that, and I just didn't see.

The entire controversy was completely overblown. Books and movie get their endings changed and edited all the time, even after release. Other games have already had their endings altered by post-release patches before this. It really wasn't the "AMG TEH END OF VIDJA GAEM ART" that people make it out to be. Such a huge fuss over such a insignificant event.

@rmack
It sounds like such a petty thing, but it really does annoy me that Bioware compromised on its artistic integrity by changing the ending even slightly as opposed to saying "The end is the third part in the trilogy, not the last ten minutes where the net effect of your actions in the world affects the progress you can make in a single cutscene." I'm apparently also a crazy person for enjoying ME3 whole cloth, minus the part where they changed my character.

3-1/2 people will actually play this SKU, so it really doesn't matter.

the original ending is just the first min of dlc so ....if the wii u players are blined mabe they will have problems lol.

Hey anyone who hasn't played this game yet and is waiting for the Wii U release. There's this thing called youtube that has them all.

Why is this even a question? Who would want the original endings? It doesn't repair all of the nonsensicalness of the ending, but it's unambiguously better. If the extended cut was the original ending, then there still would have been some grousing, but not nearly to the same degree of it being entirely unsatisfactory.

Beyond that, the extended cut changes parts from the original ending to the degree that it's bad for Bioware to have the original ending out there leading up to the inevitable sequels.

Who in the right mind would buy the third game (supposedly not playing the first two because they weren't available on the wii) with non of the back story. It was bad enough for PS3 owners to go without one game, let alone two.

@iAmJohn said:

I'm sure this matters to the five people who have been waiting to play Mass Effect 3 on the Wii U.

That number seems a bit high. Are they all Nintendo executives?

I don't really care about Mass Effect any more. I have seen the original endings and I was happy with them. I'm pretty much done with third person games in general now too. They all have their problems and the cover system is so damn boring.

It's basically the same. Not sure if you can skip the ending cutscene, but if you can, then it can be stopped at the point where the epilogue begins. For the rest I suppose you can close your eyes, cover your ears and ask a friend to nudge you when it's ok to start watching again.

I don't understand why this should even be a controversy. The original endings are still present within the extended cut, and besides being much less clear about what exactly you just chose (for those who prefer to construct their own version of the events) there isn't anything in the original that would redeem the fact that it failed to provide even adequate context for players to fully understand why they should have any kind of affinity for one ending over another.

Honestly, you would have to have a huge stick up your ass to care about this anymore.

I don't think anyone who saw the original endings and got the extended cut endings would complain about ever seeing the original again.

The only thing you'd hear in the extended cut discussion was, "Why wasn't this in the original game?" No one wants the old endings over the new ones.

@damswedon: So suddenly people like the original cut more? I don't understand the internet. I fully supported the original cut, but everyone else cried and moaned. Now that they have the extended cut, people are going and saying I hope they leave the original in... What?

The Extended Cut endings are measurably and quantifiably better, but I agree with the sentiment - preserving the original, regardless of the intent behind those original shitty endings, is absolutely necessary.

Optional Director's Cuts and Extended Editions are one thing, total artistic revisionism is another.

Oh those poor artists who had their beautiful vision ruined by the Extended Cut. Will anyone think of them?