Mass Effect lead writer Drew Karpyshyn returns to BioWare

Drew Karpyshyn is what you'd call an 'influential dude' at BioWare. He has design and/or writing credits going all the way back to Baldur's Gate 2, he was the senior writer on Knights of the Old Republic, the lead writer on Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, and did a bunch of other stuff too. He left BioWare in early 2012, not long after the launch of the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. But now he's back.

Karpyshyn revealed his return over the weekend on his personal website. "As of this past week, I am back working at BioWare again! For those who don’t know, I spent over a decade with BioWare working on many award winning and fan-beloved games like Mass Effect 1 and 2, Knights of the Old Republic and the Star Wars: The Old Republic Online MMO," he wrote. "A few years ago I left BioWare to focus on my Chaos Born novels, but now that the trilogy is finished, I’ve decided to come back into the fold. But for those of you who love my novels, don’t worry—I’ll still be writing more of those, too!"

Anticipating the speculation on the reasons for his return, he said he's not going back to start work on a new project. "The short answer: no," he continued. "I originally came to the Austin studio many years ago to work on SWTOR and—at least for now—that's what I’m focusing on again."

Karpyshyn said he'll be taking part in an AMA on Reddit's r/fantasy forum, in which he will presumably dig deeper into his reasons for rejoining the band, on October 8.

Thanks, ActionTrip.