BioWare Announces and Immediately Pulls Super Bizarre Mass Effect Statue

ign.com:

Spoiler Warning: This article features spoilers for the Mass Effect franchise and the opening of Mass Effect 2 in particular.

BioWare's merchandise department is causing chaos again after releasing an incredibly bizarre Mass Effect 2 statue depicting, spoilers, Shepard floating dead in space.

As reported by Kotaku, The Mass Effect Shepard's Death Statue was revealed by BioWare and almost immediately pulled due to fan reaction.

The statue was pitched as a "conversation starter" that depicts "Commander Shepard expelled from a crumbling Normandy and hurtling through space to her untimely demise."

The statue prompted fan outcry, or at least mass confusion, which resulted in BioWare announcing it would be pausing sales on the statue until it can "share the larger plan".

"Earlier today, we announced the sale of our latest Mass Effect Shepard statue," BioWare said. "This statue was intended to be part of a series commemorating some of the key and most emotional moments in the series.

"The way we announced it did not convey that properly, nor does it give the moment in the series the credit it deserves."

This isn't the first time the BioWare Gear Store has seemingly gone rogue as last year it released a Mass Effect 5 poster that promised Shepard would return. This was quickly removed, with BioWare project director Michael Gamble saying the merchandise department simply made a mistake, but fans remained skeptical.

BioWare has said practically nothing else about the new Mass Effect game following its reveal in December 2020, though we do know that multiple team members behind the original trilogy are working on the new instalment.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.