Mass Effect 3 arriving one week early... from space!

Want to play Mass Effect 3 one week before everyone else? Better pack an umbrella. EA announced it will be attaching physical copies of BioWare's forthcoming sequel to weather balloons and letting them dropping them from atmospheric heights over densely populated areas in North America and the UK.

Jokingly referred to as Space Editions, the packages will be augmented with GPS devices which fans can use to track their descent via Mass Effect 3's website and Twitter feed. The Mass Effect 3 weather balloons will be released over New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Berlin, London, and Paris. No Canadian cities have been announced for the promo, which is odd considering BioWare's Edmonton, Alberta, location. Here's hoping for strong northerly winds from New York.

EA will post more information on the promotion as it nears its launch date. Until then, we'll assume that by “space” it means “really high up, but not so much that it will catch on fire upon re-entry”, and that by “drop” it means “gently set down in wide open fields where it won't cause traffic accidents or mass hysteria”. Regardless, this is a fairly unique way of hyping BioWare's latest, and it's bound to get some buzz.