As a special St. Patrick’s Day present EA and BioWare officially announced Mass Effect 2 today, with a release planned for Early 2010. You know that trailer you saw a couple weeks ago? Well that was just a teaser; now this sh*t is official. Here’s said teaser in case you missed it:

Although they haven’t said it won’t be on other, possibly Sony platforms, ME 2 has only been confirmed for 360 and PC. As for the release date, it’s a little curious. The first Mass Effect was a big seller and one of 360’s three major holiday 2007 releases, along with BioShock and Halo 3, yet the sequel is planned for post holiday time.

Above: A refresher from the first game

If we had to guess – and we do – there are probably two big factors in this choice. One has to do with the game’s publisher, EA, having a not so merry holiday season with their big titles, like Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space, not being the hits they could be in such a crowded season. Perhaps this is EA dev Glen Schofield’s statement about rethinking release dates in action.

The other possible reason that comes to mind is that BioWare is pretty damn busy right now. Aside from the gargantuan undertaking of creating the Old Republic MMO, they intend to finish and ship Dragon Age: Origins this fall. Even for a big studio like BioWare, shipping Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 in the same time frame would almost certainly hurt both titles.

Above: Remember when this happened in Mass Effect?

In spite of all this wild speculation on our parts, we can’t wait to get our hands on it in about a year from now. And if this winter of Street Fighters, GTA bikers, and Resident Evils has taught us anything, a triple-A title at this time of the year is never a bad thing.

March 17, 2009