Mass Effect PC Interview
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Eurogamer: You've established a cycle of console to PC "conversions" in the last few years, with games like Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire. Will Mass Effect 2 and 3 follow in those footsteps?
Matt Atwood: I can't tell you anything yet. But there are some good surprises on the horizon on that front.
Eurogamer: Why did you choose this console-first way of doing things after having been so PC-focused in the past?
Matt Atwood: It's dependent on the game. Mass Effect works well on a console; the team did a really good job with the controls and by offering two levels [of play style]. The hardcore fan who wants to level-up, do weapon mods, look at all the codecs, and explore everywhere can do that. But the game is still very approachable for the more mainstream or less hardcore gamer who can play the main story and not do all the other things.
When you build the game you don't say "this is for this system". We went through talks with Microsoft who were great partners, and we thought we could make something really special for the 360. We were excited about the exclusivity. And it was good for the holiday time, too. It was a crazy holiday time, for sure; great for gamers.
We started working on the PC version of Mass Effect right at the tail end of 360 development. And the PC team worked directly with the console team to make sure every vision was met. Really it's fairly quick in comparison to something like Jade [Empire], and we would like to get quicker and quicker. But we're not going to rush it out, because the single most important thing is to make it feel like a natural PC experience. If BioWare delivers a game that feels anything like a port, then we're in trouble and we'll hear about it.
We get questions about if we're going to do new content [for the PC version], but what's the real value there? The game is so robust with this content. What makes the most sense is to focus on making the keyboard customisable, increasing the visuals, making the controls very natural and add things like squad commands and hot-keys for Shepard's biotic powers and weapons; make those things that, honestly, when people make ports they just don't do. They just get it going and that's it. And that's not what BioWare's about.
