UK ad authority clears Mass Effect 3 ending after complaints

The controversial ending of Mass Effect 3 is back in the news after the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that it wasn’t actually that bad, come on.

Responding to complaints that EA misled fans, the ASA found that “the three choices at the end of the game were thematically quite different, and that the availability and effectiveness of those choices would be directly determined by a player’s score, which was calculated with reference to previous performance in the game(s).”

“We also acknowledged that there appeared to be a large number of minor variations in the end stages of Mass Effect 3, and that those were directly impacted by choices made by players earlier in the game(s).”

Most of the drama focussed on a perceived lack of consequences for players’ actions and decisions leading up to the big finish, but the ASA pointed out that, realistically, there’s really only so much that could have been presented in the first place.

“Whilst we acknowledged that the advertiser had placed particular emphasis on the role that player choices would play in determining the outcome of the game, we considered that most consumers would realize there would be a finite number of possible outcomes within the game and, because we considered that the advertiser had shown that players’ previous choices and performance would impact on the ending of the game, we concluded that the ad was not misleading.”

BioWare will be releasing a free DLC epilogue to clarify the ending, although no launch date or other information has been officially announced yet.