Mass Effect Legendary Edition is a dream release for fans of the sci-fi series, even if it has some curious graphical changes that have baffled fans. It's a remaster of the original Mass Effect trilogy with quality-of-life changes to bring fans the definitive experience, being released alongside a Legendary Cache of collectables. The remaster is also set to include nearly every single DLC from the three games -- with one notable exception.
Mass Effect: Pinnacle Station was an expansion released for the original Mass Effect. It featured Commander Shepard traveling to the Pinnacle Station upon reaching the status of Spectre, where they participate in unique training experiences and survival missions. Outside of practicing combat with a squad, the DLC provided incentives for completing the survival missions.
Completing all the survival missions would unlock the ability to replay the previous missions with an extended timer. Once the player beat those secret missions, they would be rewarded with a new apartment and have rare items constantly given to them. Those who still have either the Xbox 360 or PC version of Mass Effect can still download the expansion to this day. However, BioWare has confirmed that Pinnacle Station will not be included in Legendary Edition, meeting the same fate as Mass Effect 3's multiplayer.
As for why the DLC is being excluded, it's first important to mention that Pinnacle Station was not developed internalled by BioWare. Pinnacle Station was made by a third-party, Demiurge Studios, with the permission of BioWare. Demiurge has been involved in such projects as Borderlands, BioShock and Medal of Honor: Airborne. The studio has since been acquired by Sega and has recently been involved with several mobile projects.
Reportedly, Demiurge Studios lost the original source code for Pinnacle Station. In an interview with Game Informer, Mass Effect Legendary Edition game director Mac Walters stated that they went through quite the ordeal trying and track down the Pinnacle Station's source code. Demiurge Studios was able to find a backup, but unfortunately, this was corrupted and no longer usable.
While it would technically have been possible to recreate Pinnacle Station for Legendary Edition, Walters explained that it would have taken a lot of time and effort to recreate the DLC from scratch. This would have forced BioWare to delay the game past its May 14 release date. Plus, there are also plenty of other changes and updates fans would like to see Legendary Edition focus on instead.
Pinnacle Station wasn't the best-received DLC pack for Mass Effect, with critics calling the pack uninspired in comparison to the more story-focused Bring Down the Sky. However, Pinnacle Station did have its fans, as plenty of players enjoyed the survival missions and extra in-universe VR combat scenarios. Pinnacle Station focused more on providing players with more ways to experience Mass Effect's combat.
There is a chance that fans will restore Pinnacle Station to Mass Effect Legendary Edition through mods. Pinnacle Station still exists on both the Xbox 360 and PC versions of Mass Effect; it's even free for PC users on Origin, meaning that skilled modders in the Mass Effect community may be able to reverse engineer Pinnacle Station into the trilogy remaster. Despite Pinnacle Station's rocky critical reception at launch, many fans enjoyed the pack, and it would be a shame to see it lost to time.