BioWare apologises for Mass Effect Andromeda multiplayer beta cancellation

BioWare has abandoned plans for a Mass Effect Andromeda multiplayer beta.

Players were invited to sign up for the test last year, which was expected to take place around a month before the game's 23rd March arrival.

Now, with just weeks to go before the upcoming EA Access trial comes out, BioWare has called the beta off.

The news was confirmed last night in a BioWare blog post that detailed plans for the game to be shown off at PAX East. Multiplayer will be playable there.

In a string of follow-up messages on Twitter, BioWare producer Fernando Melo stated the choice to cancel was a "long story but right decision for how close we are to live".

Another post showed a screenshot of the multiplayer mode's character selection screen. It's our first official confirmation that, as expected, you'll be able to play as non-human races.

Salarian, turian, krogan and asari are all selectable:

Multiplayer was a surprisingly great addition to Mass Effect 3 - and Andromeda's co-op mode appears to be following the same template. Matches see you and three other players take on waves of enemies. It's also the game's only chance to play as a non-human character.

Last month I played four hours of Mass Effect Andromeda and came away impressed - although the game's multiplayer modes were not on offer.