Former BioWare Writer Drew Karpyshyn Returns to Company

Speaking on his blog, where he also announced his departure, Karpyshyn explained that after finishing his Chaos Born trilogy of novels he’d decided the time was right to return to the games industry. Karpyshyn was noted for the Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 installments, but was remember to have left the studio back in February of 2012 to and went on to write novels and other non-game related subjects.

Karpyshan got ahead of the speculation, shutting down the possibility that BioWare will announce a new project tied to his return.

His statement doesn’t rule out working on something that BioWare is already working on though. With story such a key component of the expansion, it’s good that BioWare has veterans like Karpyshyn on staff. Mass Effect: Andromeda’s writing team, meanwhile, is being headed up by newcomer Chris Schlerf.

Mass Effect Andromeda was officially unveiled to the world during E3 this year, serving as a new chapter that is set to be different from the original Mass Effect trilogy. At BioWare’s Austin office, he’ll be working on MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. He says that his return isn’t heralding a new project at the developer as, at least for now, he will be focusing on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

“We knew we wanted to start with a foundation composed of the best parts of any Mass Effect game: exciting new worlds to discover, great characters, and intense action”, BioWare said in a statement.

Drew Karpyshyn is what you’d call an “influential dude” at BioWare.

Mass Effect 4 has been said to cover the holiday months of 2016.