User blog comment:Markurion/Extended Cut or Prolonged torture?/@comment-84391-20120405215133

If the ending wasn't finished (and there's lots of evidence to suggest that there isn't), then that's not really something they could own up to (look at how irate these boards are now, if they were to actually say "the ending wasn't finished, but we had to send it out anyway because of release deadlines," then multiply fan anger by a million) and finishing it wouldn't compromise their "artistic vision" (ahh, yes *snip* we have dismissed that claim). I'm not expecting a happy ending (the only thing I'm expecting is 98% less surrealism), but it does look like as is, some things that were only supposed to trigger in one ending ended up triggering in all three, and they could fix that. Believe it or not, "not changing the ending" does leave potential for hated elements to be excised, or altered to be made more forgivable. A historic example:

V1: Solo shoots first.

V2: Greedo shoots but misses, Solo kills him. Fan outrage ensues.

V3: Solo shoots first, in his death throes, Greedo's hand closes up, causing his weapon to discharge harmlessly.

The end result is the same in all three: Solo kills Greedo. "Artistic vision" (whatever it was in that case) is preserved, but it is now less upsetting to fan stomachs.

I certainly don't buy the theory of most of the extended ending taking place on the deserted planet. Shepard's not there, so it couldn't really give that much closure to Shepard's story.

I don't think we'll be waiting until September. It means anywhere between Memorial Day Weekend and Labor Day weekend, and if it's free, I doubt it would take a lot of time and manpower to make. Damage control or not, if this was LOTSB sized, then they would be giving us some rationale for charging 800 MS points.