Mass Effect Legendary Edition has gone gold — how to pre-order

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is now ready to pre-order after going gold.

Director Mac Walters posted the good news on Twitter. "Gone gold" in the industry parlance means a game is ready for launch, so the expected May 14 launch date therefore looks like it's still on. 

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The collected trilogy is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/Series S. It's going to be available for the older PS4 and Xbox One platforms as well, handy for those of us who've not been able to upgrade to a next-gen console yet.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition: preorders

You'll find the PlayStation and Xbox versions, unsurprisingly, available to pre-order on the PlayStation Store and Xbox Store respectively. They'll each cost you $60/£60 to buy, and by the looks of it, there's only one edition you can choose, so your buying decision is nice and easy.

The PC version is available from Origin Store or Steam, although both versions use Origin, publisher EA's proprietary game distribution platform, to run the game. These are slightly cheaper than the console versions at $55/£55, but you can get it even cheaper from Steam if you already own Mass Effect 3. Just select the Mass Effect Legendary Edition — ME3 Owner Offer bundle to get another 17% off, taking the price to a little under $46/£46.

PC players can also find the PC requirements for the Legendary Edition on the official website. The standout spec, whether you're aiming for minimum or recommended requirements, is that you'll need 120GB of space to install the game. You are technically installing three games in one with the Legendary Edition, which perhaps explains why it's so enormous.

It's not just a straight port of the old games to new systems. As we've seen from a Bioware blog post, the games will support 4K at 60 frames per second, speedier loading times and will feature balance and gameplay improvements for a more consistent experience across all three games. This includes overhauling the driving mechanics of ME1's infamous Mako and improving the cooldown of that game's unintuitive weapon cooldowns.

This year should be a good one for Mass Effect fans. The series was left in a precarious spot after the poorly received Mass Effect: Andromeda launched in 2017. It didn't help that it was preceded by 2012's Mass Effect 3, a game with an equally unpopular ending. The chance to remake all three games should let Bioware show that it still has the ability to make great games, even if it's currently a remake of one of its most beloved franchises.

Hopefully this will be proven fully true with the eventual release of Mass Effect 5. The sequel to the original trilogy is currently in development, but already has had some exciting story morsels revealed by way of a teaser trailer. It hints at it being a true sequel to the original trilogy. It's likely still a few years off being playable, but it will hopefully indicate the revival of a franchise that's been unable to catch a break over the last decade.

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