Star Wars: The Old Republic Lead Writer Leaves Bioware

Drew Karpyshyn also wrote for both Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, and contributed to Jade Empire, Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights.

By Matt Mann / February 17, 2012

It was announced today that Star Wars: The Old Republic lead writer Drew Karpyshyn has left Bioware. In addition to being lead writer on Star Wars: The Old Republic he also wrote for both Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, and contributed to Jade Empire, Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. Karpyshy posted the following messages on his blog:

"Im leaving to focus more time and energy on my novels and other non-video game related projects. But even though Ill no longer be working on games for BioWare, Im not going to be severing all ties with them. Many of my closest friends still work at the company, and Im also in the process of writing the next Star Wars: The Old Republic novel, though I cant say too much about it yet."

According to his blog he was not part of the upcoming Mass Effect 3 team but he did work on the last title. It is always a concern when companies like Bioware lose talented individuals such as Karpyshy. Just last year the lead designer for the Mass Effect series left Bioware as well; one of the main reasons companies like Bioware start to falter is generally because of loss of talent. We will have to see if Bioware is able to replace these talented individuals or if there is going to be a drop off in quality Bioware products.