Mass Effect is Going Multiplayer

EA recruiter Jeff Goldstein has been busy putting together a new team at BioWare Montréal, and one of the job positions he’s listed on his LinkedIn profile is for a “Multiplayer Programmer (Mass Effect Franchise)”. There’s no way of knowing if the listing is for Mass Effect 3 or if they’re working on another game based on the franchise (a Mass Effect MMORPG?), but there’s no disputing that we’re going to be seeing multiplayer support of some kind in a future ME title. As Blend Games reports:

…the BioWare Montreal opening (picture below) is for a “Multiplayer Programmer (Mass Effect Franchise).” Not much room for interpretation, there. The ideal candidate will have to come up with “solutions to deal with network latency, de-synchronization of data between networked machines/players, packet compression, cheating, and interrupted connections.” They’ll also have to “work with databases that allow for chat rooms, client/server games, player matching, player stats, etc.”

One other tidbit, from the position summary: “[Multiplayer Programmers] work with both the front and back ends to take existing single player user experiences and make them multiplayer safe.” I guess you could argue that means co-op. However, in a way all online play is just a translation of the single-player experience; both have the same basic mechanics, after all.