Inaccurate Mass Effect 4 Release Date Story "Dealt with Severely"

A story was published online this week that used a source at Bioware to state that Mass Effect 4 was already in work and would hit in 2013 or 2014 or 2015. No biggie. It's a successful property that needs a new release before consumers are milked a tad too much in the DLC sheds. But lo! The story has been pulled.

It initially quoted an unnamed Bioware dev stating, "Fans can expect a similar style of choices and action that they've come to know in Mass Effect. Casey Hudson is very much involved in the new Mass Effect game, as well as many from Edmonton. BioWare Montreal is a great studio and they did fantastic with the multiplayer for Mass Effect 3, so fans should know the series is in good hands," it then hit the possibility of a release period.

The anonymous source told the Gamersyndrome site, "You'll hear more about the new Mass Effect game in 2013. In terms of a release window, it'll launch in late 2014 to mid-2015. I honestly can't tell you an exact [date] because full development on the game started a month or two ago."

Eurogamer, picked up that news and ran hard with it all the way to "naming the source with EA, which, "confirmed the comments as belonging to Mass Effect 3 producer Mike Gamble."

Except, well, EA didn't. Or it did but then retracted. You see now Gamersyndrome has issued a grovelling apology thus: "This interview has been removed. The information provided previously by the author of this post was deemed to be obtained from an inaccurate source and NOT an official Bioware or EA interview response. We apologize for the inconvenience and the matter is being dealt with severely." See, when they used words like "Deemed" and "severely" you just know that someone at EA has been on the blower.

Eurogamer, having more weight to pull in the market merely ran with, "UPDATE #2: EA has this evening informed Eurogamer that GamerSyndrome's information did not come from EA or BioWare at all. We separately contacted GamerSyndrome who told us that the information came from an "unreliable source" and that the site was investigating the matter.

"UPDATE #1: The EA representative who organised the interview (and whom we previously spoke with) has told Eurogamer that the speaker in fact wasn't Gamble, but another BioWare team member. We've asked again for information on the speaker's identity and will update when we hear back."

And it's this kind of "News control" that should make the average reader more convinced than ever that they can trust news media because hell, it's not in a conspiracy at all... it's all a bit to shambolic still.