Mass Effect 3 briefly listed on EA Store

"Earth is burning,"reads a Mass Effect 3 pre-order listing which, according to Joystiq, appeared on the EA Store earlier today. The leak has since been removed, but it apparently listed Xbox 360, PS3, and PC versions of the trilogy's conclusion, as well as a brief description:

"Earth is burning. Striking from beyond known space, a race of terrifying machines have begun their destruction of the human race. As Commander Shepard, an Alliance Marine, your only hope for saving mankind is to rally the civilizations of the galaxy and launch one final mission to take back the Earth."

EA's listing now reads "TBD," but Joystiq, of course, hit print screen:

The generic description copy doesn't reveal much about the title, except that it apparently exists. BioWare has teased a new game announcement which will occur tomorrow during the Video Game Awards on Spike, and we've been drenched in speculation for the past couple weeks. This seems to confirm that the announcement is indeed Mass Effect 3... though it may not be entirely what you expect.

Recently, EA Games chief Frank Gibeau implied that EA and its studios will no longer focus on purely single-player experiences, so BioWare's epic series conclusion may involve online components, though we don't imagine it would stray far from the pre-tested Mass Effect formula, if at all. It's all speculation for now.

If you miss the parade of donkeys - sorry, the VGAs - tomorrow, we'll be covering all the big announcements, so stay tuned! Here's BioWare's teaser, if you missed it:

Dec 10, 2010

GamesRadarTylerWilde
Associate Editor, Digital at PC Gamer