Star Wars, Mass Effect and Anthem writer has left Bioware

Famed Star Wars and Mass Effect writer, Drew Karpyshyn, has left Bioware once again just three years after his return to the studio. Karpyshyn had previously been involved in the Mass Effect series, SWTOR and the original Knights of the Old Republic. Most recently, he was working as a writer on Anthem, Bioware's first new IP in quite some time.

Karpyshyn has a long history at Bioware, he had been working with the studio back in 2002 when the studio was working on Knights of the Old Republic. He eventually re-appeared in 2010 to work on Mass Effect 2 before leaving to work on his novel series. He re-joined in 2015 to help out with new story content for Star Wars: The Old Republic before moving on to help Bioware create Anthem, which will be released in ‘early 2019'.

Writing on his personal blog, Karpyshyn explained that this time around, he is leaving to focus on more novels, but he will still be available for freelance work in the games industry:

“Everyone who works at BioWare pours their heart and soul into the games they are making. It’s creatively demanding and – at times – exhausting. In the past, I’ve managed to juggle outside projects with my work at BioWare, but it always took a toll. And there were always outside projects I had to pass on because they would represent a conflict of interest with BioWare or EA properties.”

We don't know what this means for Anthem at this point in time. The situation does appear to have parallels to Bungie's development on Destiny 1, where key writers left just one year before launch. We know how that turned out already, but it remains to be seen if such a move will have the same effect on Anthem.

For the time being, Karpyshyn will be working on a new novel series, a new sci-fi graphic novel and as a freelance writer for Fogbank Entertainment.

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KitGuru Says: Karpyshyn's return to Bioware three years ago was big news at the time and it is a shame to see him leave once again. Still, I hope that his new projects go well, and that Bioware already has a plan in place so that this doesn't impact Anthem too much. 

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