These days, all DLC is commonly planned for AAA titles before a game even goes into full production. Why does it bother you people so much that, after the vast majority of the game was complete, they start work on DLC that was planned out years ago, and why is it any different from DLC released post-launch? The people that worked on From Ashes were probably first involved in a different project, or on a portion of Mass Effect 3 that was already completed. You might like the neat and tidy narrative that DLC is only created if the product first proves successful, but the reality is that From Ashes is probably not the only piece of DLC that is already completed. Moreover, it takes months to globally manufacture and distribute a game, and it probably takes about as long for a bug fixing period before this to end, which requires far fewer people than the main project. I didn't even mention the amount of time it takes to port a game like this to three separate platforms! I'm no industry insider, but even I can tell that this single piece of DLC (that has no bearing on the main plot by the way) was definitely not made during crunch time. How can I tell all this? Common sense, people, use it! Yeah, a Prothean character is pretty interesting and definitely a good way to get people to buy the DLC or the Collector's Edition, but just because it has lore significance does NOT mean that the content itself is somehow intrinsic to the story that Mass Effect 3 tells, like so many people seem to believe that it is. There's a large difference between a smart business decision and removing a main story element from the $60 game.