Same-Sex Romance For All in Mass Effect 3, Says BioWare

If you want man-on-man and woman-on-woman action in the next Mass Effect game, you'll be happy to hear that BioWare has made your wish its command. According to a tweet from executive producer Casey Hudson, Jane and John Shepard will support a wider array of romantic options, adding that the writing team is handling love interests of existing characters "with sophistication" and will do their best to "preserve character continuity." From his twitter feed:

"Happy to confirm #ME3 supports wider options for love interests incl. same-sex for m&f chars, reactive to how you interact w/them in-game."

Hudson also revealed "love interests won't all necessarily be permanent squad members." Fans can look forward to love across the universe, it would seem.

On a related note, the idea of a gay robot sidekick for Duke in Duke Nukem Forever has been shut down.. for now. In a recent article featuring comments from Gearbox president Randy Pitchford, Eurogamer was told that the studio had been toying with the idea of teaming the salty protagonist with a robot with a diametrically opposed sexual orientation. Pitchford said that concept was to "explore how Duke would relate to a peer that might have a different sexual orientation."

Of course we have a pretty good idea how Duke would react to the character and chances are (this is my personal opinion) Gearbox felt like showing such interactions might come off as homophobic. Still it is interesting that Gearbox is exploring some unique ideas, and Pitchford hints that such a concept might appear in a future title in the series.

Sources: Blues News, Eurogamer, Shacknews