Some very painful news for fans of the Mass Effect franchise who were impatiently waiting the arrival of the biggest and final installment in the series, Mass Effect 3, which was set to hit store shelves at some point this November.

But with two other juggernauts in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception planned for November, it was too chaotic a month to even bother with. Paired with some other reasons, BioWare has now announced that they’ll be holding on to their highly anticipated title just a little longer, and that the game with now be released in early 2012.

Another exciting announcement made at Spike TV’s Video Game Awards was the confirmation of BioWare’s Mass Effect 3, which came in the form of an announcement trailer.

Unlike The Elder Scrolls V, everyone has known from the star that Mass Effect would be a trilogy much in the same vein as Star Wars, so seeing this was no big shock. However, it was set up nicely as being that next big thing that BioWare was working on and many wondered if it would be a unique title, so there’s still a bit of excitement in seeing it with your own eyes.

The trailer is brief but exciting, as we’ve grown to expect from these games. It sets up what curiously looks like a storyline that will (at least partially) take place on our very own Earth.

You can see the announcement trailer for Mass Effect 3 by heading down to the bottom of this post now!