Mass Effect 3 flyer touts 'online multiplayer pass'

Will Mass Effect 3 have online multiplayer? So far, BioWare has been rather coy about the subject, neither confirming nor denying continued allegations that the trilogy will end with an online component. "We're exploring multiplayer in all of our games and all of our franchises," BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka said at E3 earlier this year.

More fuel is being added to the fire, with the discovery of a retail pamphlet that mentions an "online multiplayer pass" for the game's collector's edition.

South African retailer BT Games (via CVG) lists the collector's edition with all the features announced for the North American bundle. The casual mention of the "online multiplayer pass" has fans on the BioWare forums speculating if this is a reference to EA's previous online passes, or if it could be a mis-worded interpretation of the Cerberus Network, included with Mass Effect 2. The voucher, included with new copies of ME2, granted access to a selection of downloadable content, including the character Zaeed and his loyalty mission.

Previous retail leaks have outed Mass Effect 3's Kinect support.

Although EA has yet to announce multiplayer support for BioWare's upcoming shooter, the current rumor pegs the feature as a co-op Horde-style mode that has four players fighting an onslaught of enemies.

Mass Effect 3 will be available on March 6, 2012.