Anthem - Writer Leaves Bioware

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Gamingbolt reports that writer Drew Karpyshyn left Bioware:

Mass Effect 2 Lead Writer Leaves Bioware For Second Time

Drew Karpyshyn, who was working on Anthem, has left the company again.

Remember Drew Karpyshyn? The Bioware writer is perhaps best known for his work as the lead writer for Mass Effect 1 and 2. Though he left the studio in the period between Mass Effect 2 and 3 to work on a novel trilogy, Karpyshyn would return to work on Anthem, the upcoming shared world shooter that was delayed to 2019. Or at least we thought he was – Karpyshyn has recently announced on his personal site that he’s leaving Bioware again.

Karpyshyn’s reason for leaving is to “pursue a number of other projects, including more original novels, an original sci-fi graphic novel I’m co-creating, and freelance gaming work.” He also notes that he’ll be working on something with FogBank Entertainment. The company’s announcement states its focus is on narrative games with branching storylines. To that effect, Karpyshyn is “not leaving games entirely”. Just Anthem.
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Does anybody still care about Bioware, or think they're likely to produce anything worth buying/playing?
 
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Given the fact that I never really cared for the ME universe, this departure doesn't really strike me as either good or bad. I'll still be keeping an eye on Anthem, as it has given me a Scifi Guild Wars vibe; hopefully it will prove to have more depth than GW2 however.
 
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My question is why did he leave. His reason was the PC reason but it would be interesting to know the underlying cause of his rejoining only to leave.
 
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This is like a small independent company now, minus any decent products or relevance. Quite a pathetic tale, short in the telling and memorable in the demise. A cautionary tale, if ever.
 
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My question is why did he leave.
He's a writer. What could he possibly do in a company that is developing some irrelevant MMO.
 
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Shame, I guess romances are out of picture... there once was a tale about love between a man, his mech suit and a bottle of lube oil. :p
 
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Graphically, Anthem does look pretty amazing. But not really on my radar, besides the eye candy, haven't heard much in game play that sounds attractive.
 
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My question is why did he leave. His reason was the PC reason but it would be interesting to know the underlying cause of his rejoining only to leave.

He came back to work on SWTOR expansion. Now its finished there is nothing left for him to do.
 
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Given the fact that I never really cared for the ME universe, this departure doesn't really strike me as either good or bad. I'll still be keeping an eye on Anthem, as it has given me a Scifi Guild Wars vibe; hopefully it will prove to have more depth than GW2 however.
I cared for ME1, it was still more RPG than corridor shooter and its world has novelty value.
 
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I'm not sure why people are up in arm for a guy leaving for personal projects when he already did so back in 2012.

And back in 2012 nobody really cared that he left…

They actually have writers for Anthem? :)

Most of them actually, if not all of them except Patrick Weekes since they seems to have "rebooted" Dragon Age last year and moved the devs to Anthem.
 
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Meh as If I cared about another online service based game with the option to play SP online. Frankly this new game from Bioware doesn't have any appeal to me.
This is like a small independent company now, minus any decent products or relevance. Quite a pathetic tale, short in the telling and memorable in the demise. A cautionary tale, if ever.
After the failure of ME: Andromeda, and the cancellation of the planned DLC I agree.
 
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I cared for ME1, it was still more RPG than corridor shooter and its world has novelty value.

I agree. The twist at the end of ME1 is still one of the best endings to a game I've ever experienced.
 
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For a game writer, it may be good to move around a bit so you don't get too stale. Just sayin'...
 
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So a writer left a job after the writing part of the job was over.

Um, yeah, that's not news. That's called finishing a job and moving on to something else.
 
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The short answer is no.

The longer answer is definitely not.

This is sadly what happens to most developers who are part of EA.

Yeah, EA's MO seems to be to buy up successful game companies to get their talent and IPs then dismantle them and send them to work on what EA wants them to work on (usually milking franchises to death).

My question is why did he leave. His reason was the PC reason but it would be interesting to know the underlying cause of his rejoining only to leave.

My guess would be that he left because he may not like EA. He's already worked for some noteworthy projects and been in the industry for a while, so there's no reason to put himself through what sounds like torture to add some stuff to his resume.
 
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Has any developer that has been bought by EA kept their talented people for long? Corporate environment has it's own benefits, but it isn't often optimal for these creative types.
 
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Has any developer that has been bought by EA kept their talented people for long? Corporate environment has it's own benefits, but it isn't often optimal for these creative types.

The game industry average for developers is ~5 years in the same company. It's not a EA thing. You just do not ear about it because most developers aren't public on Twitter.

Important developers leaving a gaming studio is just an issue when it is BioWare, nobody claims it's the end of the world when it happens at Blizzard or Ubisoft.

There was actually a lots of departure in the last 6 months though, but that was people on DA4 which was rebooted and also the super low moral at BioWare following the crap people are saying about their games (from DA2 to Anthem, yes Anthem, game isn't even released and people are already saying it's going to be shit), the company and "their agenda".

Nobody wants to work for a company that has everyone on the internet talk shit about.
 
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