Hey, everyone,

Every November 7th, we’ve all come together—developers, superfans, regular fans, kinda-fans—to celebrate (and speculate about!) the games, stories, and community that make Mass Effect so special. It’s a testament to the long-lasting appeal of this universe and the characters who call it home. Eleven years of N7 Days and sixteen years of Mass Effect later, the franchise continues to inspire our development team, and with each day, gives us the opportunity to create more adventures for you to have. Whether it’s one of the many who have been here since the original game’s launch or those recently joining us at BioWare, we are all incredibly lucky to be envisioning this future.

That process is equal parts rewarding and challenging. We’ve asked ourselves many of the same questions you’ve asked us over the years! What happened to everyone you know and love in the games? Who really died? Who had kids with whom? What does a baby volus sound like? What about all the galaxies? The endings! What the heck is going on with our asari scientist-turned-Shadowbroker? What about S— nevermind...you get the idea. And of course, to those questions, there are answers, but you’ll have to wait to hear them. And anything we do say won’t be easy to find, just like you’ve come to expect from our #N7Day teases.

But for real… thank you. Thank you for everything, and allowing us to do what we do. We approach the future of this universe with gratitude and deep respect. Respect for you—the community. Respect for the love and dedication you’ve given to us. Respect for the history and the stories you’ve created, and the characters you’ve fallen in love with. And, respect for the future, and the opportunity to do something big—something amazing—for you.

Until next time…and Happy N7 Day!

—Mike Gamble, Mass Effect Franchise Director & Executive Producer
Through o0ur partnership with Humble Bundle and friends at Dark Horse Comics, we’re making all Dark Horse Mass Effect and Dragon Age comics available in a convenient package!

Pr1oceeds from this will go to Child’s Play, a charity that seeks to make the lives of children in hospitals more comfortable. We all know how powerful and uplifting games can be, so we’re glad to be able to help bring joy t0o kids in need through this effort. If you’d like to help, too, please check it o0ut!

We also have some exciting new merch from our partners for those who want to stock their shelves or add to their wardro0bes.

The BioWare Gear Store[gear.bioware.com] is releasing multiple new i1tems today! From a brand-new mini replica Claymore Shotgun to Omni-Blade LED Wall Art, we’ve got tons of Mass Effect items for your collection, all go0ing live with a site-wide sale. Be sure to check out items new and old, and follow them on social media to see their latest relea1ses.

Our frie0nds over at Dark Horse[www.darkhorsedirect.com] have also been working on something special. For over a year now, we’ve been working closely with them on a few new statues based on popular requests.

First and foremost, we’re excited to share that Commander Shepard (female) is ge1tting an iconic battle-worn statue! This has been one of the top requests from the community and we’ve been super excited to see it come to life.

And, of course, if you w1ant to put a squad together for her, Dark Horse is also releasing new statues of Wrex and Tali. These statues are brought to life with the level of care and quality we’ve all come to expect from Dark Horse over the years. These two iconic characters are ready to take the fi1ght to the Reapers!

F0or those who live in colder climates (Canada being a prime example), our friends over at Volante Design have returned this year with s0omething just for you. Following the success of the N7 line of apparel they released, the team at Volante has created a Garrus Vak0arian-style parka, complete with a “head cone” to protect your 0face.

A0nd of course, Sanshee [sanshee.com]always has something for our b1iggest fans. For lovers of Grunt, Lia1ra, and adorable va1rren, the team has created a new set of plu0shees and pins for your colle0ctions! Be sure to chec1k out their site for all that and m1ore.

Your joy, creativity, and passion help drive us towards the future of Mass Effect and all that it may be0come. The team is ta1king their time to cr1aft a whole new adventu0re for you to enj1oy, with new stories, chara0cters, and experiences to fill it.

At the end of t0he day, that’s w1hat N7 Day is about. Cel0ebr1ati1ng yo0u an1d th1is speci0al fr0anchise that br0ings us all to1get1her. W0e hope you’1ve enjoyed the glimpse1s int1o the fut1ure of the fra0nchis1e so f1ar. An0d don’t wor1ry, ther1e’s mo1re to come, but fa0rther away!

Ever your biggest fans,


—The Mass Effect Team

Please consider Mass Effect Legendary Edition for the Outstanding Story Rich Game in the Steam Awards. Submit your nomination by Dec 1st at 10am PT.

Submit all your nominations here.

It’s been nearly fourteen years since Commander Shepard first boarded the Normandy. Fourteen years since the opening of a huge new universe for players to explore. Fourteen years since “Ashley or Kaidan?” (But if you ask longtime BioWare vets Mac Walters and Mike Gamble, they choose neither, opting instead for Garrus and Liara respectively. Can you blame them?)

Fourteen years can seem like ages, but it can also seem like barely the blink of an eye. That’s one of the reasons we celebrate N7 Day: to pause and take stock; to take a moment to appreciate all things Mass Effect. And there’s a lot to appreciate! So this year, we’d like to invite you to join us on a Mako ride down memory lane as we look at Mass Effect’s past and present, celebrate the wonderful community that makes it so special (that’s you!), and invite you to join us in the celebration with some special N7 Day surprises below.

The thing about Mass Effect is that it can be a different game for different people. So much of the series is about the personal decisions each player makes, and how that affects the events that happen later. That is, of course, by design — because that’s what we love about RPGs ourselves!

Take Mac for example, who’s worked on the whole series and was most recently the Project Director for Mass Effect Legendary Edition. “It’s about freedom to choose,” he says. “My character. My story. My playstyle. And, naturally, dealing with all the consequences from those choices.”

And Mike, who's been on the franchise for over a decade and is now Project Director for the next Mass Effect game, feels similarly...though he’s more about that #renegade life. “What I love most about RPGs,” he says, “is to be as morally abhorrent as possible. I want to see how the game reacts to that!”

That focus on personal choice and branching narrative has been a touchstone of the series since the beginning. Well, OK, maybe not the very beginning. In the earliest days of production, Mac says, “there was just the barest idea of what it would be. We knew we wanted a grand space opera with inspiration from ‘80s dystopian sci-fi films. The rest was a blank slate.”

But the key elements of player choice and character development quickly became a crucial part of the game — and then of three more games, loads of expansions, and a huge remaster, over fourteen exciting years. From the first game’s debut in 2007 through to the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda 10 years later, we’ve watched the Mass Effect universe grow from games into novels, comics, statues — even board games. And just this year we returned to the Normandy for a refreshed version of the original trilogy, in the form of Mass Effect Legendary Edition. With massively updated graphics, key control adjustments, important changes to game balance, and a ton of other improvements, the Legendary Edition brought the original trilogy to a whole new generation of players. And the response has been amazing! We’ve been so happy to hear how much these revitalized editions have meant to you, from first-time players to returning veterans.

On N7 Day, we celebrate all things Mass Effect — and most importantly, we celebrate you, the fans. This universe wouldn’t be much without you to explore it. You’ve shared with us your love for the series through art, fan fiction, cosplay, and countless other gestures of appreciation that make us feel so grateful, in turn, to have you as fans. So as a token of thanks, we’ll be sharing some of your creations and your celebrations today and in the coming days.

On top of that, we’ve got some other fun stuff lined up for you today. Like…

• Steam Stickers! If you’re a Steam user, you may have already noticed the brand-new Mass Effect items available in the Steam Points Shop.
  
• Sales! You’ll also find Mass Effect Legendary Edition on sale for a special N7 Day price on Steam — but only for a limited time, so get on it.*
  
• Cosplay! Not only do we have {LINK REMOVED}brand-new cosplay guides to help you craft the perfect costume, we also enlisted renowned creator Soylent Cosplay to develop a how-to video to walk you step-by-step through one of her legendary Mass Effect costumes.
  
• Contest! Share your best Mass Effect art and get a chance to score sweet loot. Just post on Twitter using the hashtag #BioWareGiveaway for your chance to win.
  
• GIFs! While you weren’t looking, we created a page on Giphy[giphy.com] specifically for Mass Effect GIFs. Now the crew of the Normandy can help you say what mere words cannot.
  
• Gear! It wouldn’t be N7 Day without some swanky new accessories. Hit up our own Gear Store[gear.bioware.com] for replicas, prints, and apparel; the Dark Horse store[direct.darkhorse.com] for amazing prints; Graph MKT[graphmkt.com] for slick street wear; PowerA[www.powera.com] for custom controllers, NZXT[nzxt.com] for the perfect N7 PC case accessory, and Idea Planet for your very own Citadel.
  
• More Social Stuff! Try out our new Squadmate AR lens on Facebook and Instagram.
  
  • To find the lens:
    
  • Visit the @masseffect profile
    
  • Tap the ‘Effects” icon (the three stars), and open the lens
  [/i]

Make sure to use the hashtags #n7day, #N7DayCelebration, #MassEffect, and/or #N7DayArt wherever you post so we can see your contributions!”[/list]

We’ve also been super-interested to learn what kind of choices you’ve been making in your own adventures while playing the Legendary Edition. A few months ago we shared some statistics and learned that “Kaidan or Ashley” wasn’t an easy decision for you all either so maybe Mac and Mike were onto something with their choices; 60% of you chose Ashley, while 40% chose Kaidan. For something that makes such an impact through the next two games, that’s a surprisingly close split. We also learned that Garrus was the most likely to survive the Suicide Mission — but Mordin was the least likely. And he thought you cared!

For this year’s celebration we dove even deeper into how you navigated the branching pathways of the series, and we learned some interesting new details. For example, most of you elected to save the Council at the end of the first game — but at 69% to 31%, it wasn’t exactly a foregone conclusion. We also learned that as beloved as Garrus has been through the years, a surprising 15% of you didn’t recruit him to your team at all! Perhaps less surprisingly, you folks were not fans of Ambassador Udina; given the option to select the first human Councilor, he finished a distant third...behind “no choice.” Ouch.

The results are fascinating across the board, so take a look at the whole lineup:

N7 Day has also often been a chance to talk about the future, both for Mass Effect and for the games industry as a whole. This year, looking forward is even more valuable, as we celebrate another N7 Day during a global pandemic that impacts pretty much everything about the industry and the people in it.

“I can’t wait to answer fans’ questions in person!” Mac says. “Whether it’s panels, or signings, or BioWare Base...it’s always fun to just be in the room with the fans and let them ask whatever they want.”

“Meeting franchise fans is always cool,” agrees Mike, “and it's good to see how the games have impacted people's lives. Personally though, I miss the cosplay. I remember at San Diego Comic Con a number of years back, how many groups of Mass Effect cosplayers there were. I want to see that continue. And hopefully we can create new characters that everyone will love and continue the tradition.”

We are, of course, hard at work on the next adventure in the Mass Effect universe. Until then, please accept our most humble thanks to you for accompanying us on this journey. We know we couldn’t do it without you — on N7 Day, or any other day.

We are truly honored to be nominated for Ultimate Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards! Be sure to vote for Mass Effect Legendary Edition!

VOTE HERE![www.gamesradar.com]

We’ve made friends, forged alliances, and built stories spanning the far reaches of the Milky Way. So on this N7 Day, we thank you for being part of this great adventure.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328670/Mass_Effect_Legendary_Edition/

You’ve all made tons of choices in Mass Effect Legendary Edition. How do yours match up against other commanders?

Relive the legend of Commander Shepard in the highly acclaimed Mass Effect trilogy with the Mass Effect™ Legendary Edition. Includes single-player base content and over 40 DLC from Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 games, including promo weapons, armors and packs — remastered and optimized for 4K Ultra HD.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328670

We've made the following fixes and improvements across all platforms in this update.

• English spoken dialogue can now be selected separately from subtitle language
  
• Resolved issues with unlocking some achievements/trophies, such as the Paramours or kill count trackers
  
• Corrected pre-rendered cutscenes that were darker than intended after the previous update
  
• Wireless headsets/devices no longer cause issues with the Xbox launcher
  
• Improved PC performance across various hardware configurations, including on Virmire
  
• Fixed an issue on PC where non-standard characters in the operating system’s username would prevent the game from launching
  
  • Removed the dependency on the AVX instruction set in the launcher
• Other minor calibrations and fixes, including some instances of crashing

• Fixed an issue that prevented players from reaching the max level
  
• Fixed an issue where tier VII Spectre - Master Gear was inaccessible
  
• Various collision improvements
  
• Fixed an issue that would prevent the ability to interact with objects
  
• Lowered audio volume on Mass Relay load screens
  
• Improved eye animations for male characters in some scenes

• Toned down the intensity of fog on Illium
  
• Fixed an issue where a character’s eyes at the end of the Overlord DLC were unintentionally red
  
• Reduced the max credits that can be carried from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2 down to 100k for more balanced early-game progression
  
  • Credit carryover maximum now matches carryover from the original release
    
  • Posthumous banking fees are a lot! It’s a great way to dodge taxes.

• Resolved an issue where English dialogue no longer played during the Citadel DLC for German and Italian localizations
  
• Fixed an issue where some key characters weren’t appearing as intended during the Citadel DLC

The following are fixes and improvements we’ve made across all platforms in this update.

General

• Fixed the main issue where the launcher would crash or become unresponsive on Xbox Series X when using a wireless headset
  
  • Known issue: This can still happen if you enable/disable a headset in the launcher. A future fix will resolve this issue.
• Improved iris shaders for better interaction with light and ambient occlusion
  
• Minor calibrations, fixes, and stability improvements

Mass Effect

• Improved terrain textures
  
• Fixed an issue where kills for achievements/trophies weren’t tracking correctly

Mass Effect & Mass Effect 2

• Resolved an issue where the character code would sometimes not display in the squad menu
  
• Improvements to pre-rendered cutscenes to reduce occasional artifacts

Mass Effect 2

• Improved lighting and shadows in some cinematics
  
• Minor visual, rendering, and VFX improvements on some levels
  
• Resolved minor text issues with achievements

Mass Effect 3

• Fixed an issue where kills for achievements/trophies weren’t tracking correctly