EA to launch Mass Effect 3 prior to March 6 (literally)

So, you call yourself a hardcore fan of BioWare’s award-winning Mass Effect universe, do you?

You unashamedly quote game dialogue in your daily life. You like strutting your stuff in licensed apparel. And you’re even a fan of all the accompanying paperback novels.

Hardcore, you say? Well, let’s put that claim to the test…

Placing our worries regarding a geek stampede to one side, we thought you might like to know that Electronic Arts (EA) is offering fans pre-release access to BioWare’s Mass Effect swansong well ahead of its official March 6 launch (in the U.S.).

And, in order to be one those lucky few who gain the full Mass Effect 3 experience, all that (truly) hardcore gamers need do is track and retrieve one of six copies of the game EA plans to launch into the stratosphere next week.

According to the third-party publishing giant, its pre-retail copies are to be individually attached to weather balloons and released over Berlin, Las Vegas, London, New York, Paris, and San Francisco.

Weak-at-the-knee fans overcome by the need to confront the onrushing Reaper threat will be able use the official Mass Effect website and Twitter to follow and locate one of the copies as they return to Earth.

So, as we said, just how hardcore are you?

Image courtesy of roman.petruniak/Flickr.