Microsoft's Shane Kim though has spoken on MTV about how Microsoft is eager to keep the game only on the Xbox 360 after the critical success of the franchise - the game even placed on our Top 10 Games of 2007. Speaking on MTV, Shane said; "We really care about our relationship with EA. BioWare's been a good partner for us. We're very happy with the success of "Mass Effect" and we want that to continue. From a platform perspective, is it the most important that Microsoft Games Studios publishes it or [rather] that it's exclusive to the platform? That's the way we have to think about it." Asked if the full planned trilogy would continue to be Xbox 360 exclusive, Shane said that Microsoft is absolutely convinced that is the case.

EA has already stated that their using ps3 as their main platform for developing. so thats the case if they do make it for ps3

Strange logic? Only if the game is coming to the PS3 of course. They aren't developing on the PS3 and porting to the Wii on a Wii only game either.

This would be amazing. 360 owners can get all Square-Enix JapanoRPGs their heart desires if I can only get a real RPG like Mass Effect. This would kill one of the two reasons for getting a 360 (I doubt the number one Halo3 will budge)

Mass Effect is important to MS,so they will do anything in theyr power to keep it exclusive. We`ll see how that will work out in the end.

This thread is really, really long, but when EA bought Bioware, there were most certainly contracts in place between Bioware and Microsoft. In the corporate world, the acquiring company is bound by all the of the (legal) contracts that the company they acquired entered in to. During the acquisition, there would have been a discovery period where EA would look at all of Bioware's contracts and decide if they were willing to accept the burden of those contracts.

The big question is, what was the contract between MS and Bioware and did EA, during the course of the acquisition, do something to buy out or pay a penalty to violate any such agreement? Just because EA now owns Bioware doesn't mean they can void legally binding contracts. They can certainly do it illegally and fight it in court or perhaps break the contract and pay whatever penalties there are in it, but I personally would assume that this rumor is rubbish until something more substantial is said. You can bet MS had an Iron Clad contract in place before hand and EA can't just wave it off.

Supposedly, MS owned publication rights to the first 2 games, with an option for the third.  So unless, EA really made it worth MS's while, it is highly unlikely that ME2 will be on PS3.   EA definately bought the rights to publish ME on PC and ME2&3 for XBOX360 from MS.  However, I find it hard to believe that MS would allow ME to be published on PS3.  Just getting the publication rights to XBOX360 and PC had to have cost EA at least $20-30 million.  Who knows how much MS would want to allow publication on PS3.

Except Bioware have said that they could port the game to the PS3 if they wanted too. So obviously there are no legal restraints in the way.

Source: http://forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=607257&forum=22&sp=0

it will most likely stay on 360

YAWNS!

It doesn't matter who published what, the fact is that Bioware (now EA) owns the Property. They can do with it what they will. I'm sure in MS publishing it, they got something out of the deal (more than likely the exclusivity for a period and/or the DLC, but as MM said, straight from the Developer's mouth, they said that it could be on other platforms aside from the 360. So whatever anyone else says is BS because THE DEVELOPER OF THE GAME has stated that the game could go multi.

Now with EA's financial situation looking how it is, they will be looking to make quick money however they can, and a port would be risk free.

Trust, ME 1 will be hitting the triple sooner rather than later, and ME2 and ME3 will be multi-plat. ME 1 hitting the PS3 will also give them a good starting point to the PS3s architechture, so that the future games can come out better.

Like I said, third-party exclusives are dead. Aside from MGS and Gears, which neither company will let go due to the system pushing power, virtually every other IP not owned by the company will venture onto another platform. It's the recession ya'll!