Although, He Has Not Quit Gaming
Drew Karpyshyn, previously the lead writer for BioWare, has officially left the studio and work on Anthem as of March 2nd. This is months after he revealed his involvement back in June 2017. Though it’s unclear how this departure will affect the project going forward, the former employee did share a few words.
According to Karpyshyn’s blog post, the reason for his second departure from BioWare deals with personal projects. Back in 2012, he left the studio in order to pursue his work as a novelist, specifically the Chaos Born trilogy. This time, it’s a similar reason, and it seems he was unable to balance close projects with game design.
I know a lot of you are wondering why I’m doing this. For many people, working at BioWare would be their dream job and they can’t imagine anyone stepping away from it. But it was time for me to move on.
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.
So I made the decision to step back (again) and focus on my freelance work. I’d love to say more about the novel(s) I’m working on, or my graphic novel project, but those details will have to wait a while.
For more on Karpyshyn and his future work, you can visit his blog here. During his earlier days at BioWare, he worked on titles such as Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Knights, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and, most notably, Mass Effect 1 and 2. Wherever he goes, there’s likely to be narrative magic. As for Anthem, we’ll just have to wait and see how the game’s storytelling delivers without Karpyshyn at the helm. Stay tuned for updates.
Happy gaming.