On an EA earning conference call this afternoon, CEO John Riccitiello made an announcement that, while not unexpected, is bound to make a lot of gamers happy. In the fourth quarter of 2009 (sorry, we don't know if it's calendar or fiscal 2009 yet), EA will be publishing Mass Effect 2, presumably developed by BioWare. Unfortunately, that's about all we know at this point, so there are still a lot of questions that need to be answered. One thing we do know for sure is that the game will be released on Xbox 360 and PC, although it's not yet known if it'll be a simultaneous release or if it will be staggered like the release of the first game was.



Will says: I think most of us knew that this would be announced at some point in the near future, so it's not exactly earth-shattering news. That's not to say, however, that it's not great news for those of us who loved the first game. Of course, there are a ton of questions that people will be asking, myself included. Will I be able to import my character from the first game? Will the choices I made at the end of Mass Effect alter the sequel? Will it be a direct sequel with the same characters, or a new game with new characters? Inquiring minds want to know!

What do you want to see in the sequel?