Really?
They're surprised?
It's strange to them that a great story that players literally have hundreds of hours invested in angers players when there's literally no good ending no matter what you do. You just pick an ending at the end, and nothing you've done so far will be reflected upon even slightly.

Dastardly:
The ending is out there, and they can't take it back. Nor should they. Nor would it do the least bit to please the complainers. However, they're recognizing what they can do: not change the ending, but clarify it a bit.

There is nothing to clarify. We are not idiots. We understand the ending. And we understand that it doesn't make any sense unless that indoctrination theory is correct. There is nothing they could possibly clarify that we didn't already think of.

This attempt to give us answers without giving us actual answers, plus their cryptic messages about holding on to your save files and not knowing what they have in store for us, and the analysis of the ending leads me to believe in the indoctrination theory even more. They are trolling us.

"So, it's incredibly painful to receive feedback from our core fans that the game's endings were not up to their expectations. Our first instinct is to defend our work and point to the high ratings offered by critics - but out of respect to our fans, we need to accept the criticism and feedback with humility."

I feel really bad now after berating the games ending. But they were sub-par in comparison to, well, anything really; and they were a huge let-down after such an epic trilogy. I know how "heartwrentching" (for use of a better word) it is to pour your life into a creative piece and have it ripped apart. Is this situation more fool me, or them?

Leximodicon:
I'd patch in about 2 minutes of text saying all this shit that characters did after the explosion, then told everyone to fuck off. The game isn't perfect, live with it.

See the problem with that is people would actually have to find something else to do with their time. Like play outside, or learn a language. Or you know move on and play something else.

The ending was anti-climatic and made little sense, but it didn't break the game nor was it like the Sopranos, Shepard eating in a space diner with Journey playing the background for no damn reason.

VonKlaw:
Atleast this guy seems to know how to talk PR bullshite without managing to piss even more people off.

Nope, he doesn't. You don't appease angry fans by pointing to reviews (who have EA advertisements plastered all over their sites) twice, or claiming your rushed, obscurantist mess is 'artistic'. It's not, it's garbage.

Granted, -I- think it's hilarious garbage. A bit like ending Empire Strikes Back with ten minutes of dancing sumo wrestlers; yeah, it might completely betray the material up to that point, but it would be -funny-.

So legions of fans have essentially bullied the shite out of a group of artists until they caved and decided to rewrite the ending to THEIR series.

Great.

Ashoten:
I now have a new appreciation for MovieBobs fanboyism. Sure he gives nintendo way to much credit but at least he is loyal. I wouldn't want fans if they were the Mass Effect fans. Fair weather and all that. Singing your praises until you make one mistake? no thanks.

So you prefer blind obedience instead of someone who will actively call you on something that doesn't make sense? Well, I guess that's something, but really, I would entirely disagree. I don't see anything fair weather about these fans. Sure you can point to one or two who are indeed out of line, but that's an obvious strawman you use to discredit a movement/group/etc when you have no real standing.

Most of these people if you actually read their stuff, myself included, still love the series, but what they decided to crap out for the ending was a slap in the face. Normally I'd say opinions on things like this are subjective, but compared to what we were promised and what the entire trilogy was about, this isn't an subjectivity issue.

I already posted my main thoughts elsewhere, but to use something that's become a bit of a Meme, they claimed that we wouldn't get an A, B, C ending, when, that's exactly what we got. And no the fact that in 2 you could save or destroy the base means it was only an A or B ending. The entire run up to there you were making choices of who went with you and who did not and that meant who survived, those are all potentially huge branching choices. Alas, I have a feeling you will do little more than stick fingers in your ears because we have to be children/whiners/whatever because Gamespot and others told you so.

Ashoten:
I now have a new appreciation for MovieBobs fanboyism. Sure he gives nintendo way to much credit but at least he is loyal. I wouldn't want fans if they were the Mass Effect fans. Fair weather and all that. Singing your praises until you make one mistake? no thanks.

Except this one mistake not only botches the ending of one game, but botches the endings of all 3 games.
I won't play any ME game ever again since I know whatever choice I make in them doesn't amount to anything.The ending to ME3 wasn't just a mistake. It was a slap in the face to fans, and storytelling.

Meh. Same old bullshit from a higher paid dude.

I still believe in the indoctrinated theory.

i wonder how long it would take for them to make an ending if it only started now. there would be script writing, rendering. placing. paceing. animation. details. programing etc.. dont know much about game design but i think it would probably take a few months to test and implement.

now.. if they come out with the ending maybe next month.. that would mean they already were working on it.. and the possible rumors of them cutting it off due to the leaked script might have some weight.

if they do release it fairly quickly... i would have to hand it to bioware. it would mean they perpously made the ending like it is.. and would be so awesome if it was the indoctrination theory... cuz then they just trolled us all. building up tension and anticipation for the true ending. idk. i hope they come out soon.. later would mean they were just caving into pressure. =(

It seems like Bioware has, though this ending, managed to create a humungous demand (...with surrounding publicity) for an "epilogue" DLC, which people, by the looks of it, will be willing to pony up quite a bit of money for, even after the way some of them may have reacted to the opportunistic nature of the first one.

Accident?

Lillowh:
Holy crap this man knows how to PR like a boss. Even though they love what they made and what their first response based on instinct was, which the admittance of shows that they're actually looking at themselves instead of just shutting us out. Honestly, nobody should be able to insult them for what their first instinctive response was because almost everyone does the same thing with something they're really proud of making and from their position it was probably like presenting a painting of your senior class that all your relatives and friends said was beautiful that you made to signify how you'll miss them, and everyone in the room snickers and calls it shitty). To me the biggest surprise of this statement was that although they believer what they made was great, he's taking legitimate criticism of his work into account constructively, and not being completely arrogant about it and saying we're "playing it wrong" or something like that, he's actually admitting they might have made some mistakes and using the word humility in regards to something they need to have? I hope this is a sign of Bioware getting knocked back to reality from the "everything we make is instant gold bars financially and review-wise," attitude it seems they've been slipping into that was probably the cause of the lower quality of their work that has been happening since they started getting into that phase. Maybe they'll return to the quality of work that they used to produce.

On the other hand, and I know he says they want to have artistic integrity with this. I feel they threw that out somewhere between the freshly dead corpse after DA2 (I still loved DA2, not nearly as much as DA:O and DA:O:A, so if a frash corpse of a Bioware writer is what caused the game to be what it was, the body was already picked apart by crows by the end of 3. Seems like ending of Neon Genesis all over again. Even though this technically makes more sense then the ME3 ending, imagine if this was in the last few pages of The Return of the King (would make more since Magic actually exists here and the "most important character in the universe" has been introduced in the series before this page). Do you think people would accept this ending if it was the artist's vision that Tolkien wrote?

Spoiler: Click to ViewPHA+PGltZyBzcmM9Imh0dHA6Ly9pMjY1LnBob3RvYnVja2V0LmNvbS9hbGJ1bXMvaWkyMzAvTGlsbG93aC9NYXNzRWZmZWN0b2ZUaGVSaW5nc1RoZVJldHVybm9mdGhlMy5wbmciIGFsdD0iaW1hZ2UiLz48YnIgLz5ZZWFoLCBJIGRpZG4ndCB0aGluayBzby4uLjwvcD4=

I agree with your points, and the modified end to the Lord of the Rings is both funny and accurate. BUT I would add the small criticism that, in the ME3...

TL,DR: Please buy our game, even though the ending is crap.

Bioware needs to fix this. At light speed. The fans are not happy -- not disappointed, not dissatisfied, they are downright angry, and the feel cheated.

If this screw-up isn't addressed, then Mass Effect's legacy in this industry will be a sour note in the symphony -- people will tell jokes. That's what Mass Effect will be. A joke. People will walk by Mass Effect's house, point and say 'That's where Old Man Shepard lives. He could have ruled the world, but he traded away all his money for rainbows and multiplayer.'

Now they'll start selling the "true" ending/s.

Fuck you EA and fuck you BioWare.

I already said I won't buy any EA/Bioware game ever again after Mass Effect 3 and I guess I won't be missing on much in the next decade or so.

Let this better be free DLC.

Andy Chalk:
Muzyka wrote. "Even so, the passionate reaction of some of our most loyal players to the current endings in Mass Effect 3 is something that genuinely surprised us."

I don't buy this.

I do not believe that every single person within Bioware looked at the final ending and said: "Yup, that's a perfect ending to this trilogy; fans are gonna love it!"

Don't get me wrong, this is Bioware's baby, the people there must be very invested in the characters and the world. I get that. So how did these endings get a thumbs up from every single person involved in the game's development? Seriously guys?

"This is in addition to our existing plan to continue providing new Mass Effect content and new full games, so rest assured that your journey in the Mass Effect universe can, and will, continue."

How the hell do you continue the Mass Effect universe when you destroyed the mass relays AND stranded all races at Earth with no hope of survival? How do you continue the Mass Effect universe when any of three endings could have occured? Why the massive plot holes that will only hinder your development of further games? Arghh my brain!

New full games

?? Unless he means crappy little phone games, this is news.

Shotgun Guy:
"Our first instinct is to defend our work and point to the high ratings offered by critics", NO FUCKING SHIT, Mass Effect 3 was a great game and the type that always gets high scores regardless, most rational people won't argue that. The endings were trash and that is all most people have a problem with. I'm not asking for a new ending, Bioware can stick with what they gave us for all I care, I just want them to add more to it. You can't just give us those endings and expect us not to be pissed, as any teacher grading a paper would say, "YOU NEED TO ELABORATE".

Exactly, all they need to do is add in or even just write and explanation of WTF actually happened.