Drew Karpyshyn leaves Bioware to work at Fogbank

On Friday Drew Karpyshyn announced on his official blog that he would be stepping away from Bioware (again) to focus on his freelance work and personal projects.

"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. (Yes, I'm using this announcement to tease other future announcements. In marketing, they call that "synergy".)

But I'm not leaving games entirely. As of Monday, I'm officially working with Fogbank Entertainment and FoxNext Games. I can't say a lot about what we're up to yet," he writes in the blog post.

Aaron Loeb, president of Studios at FoxNext Games, responsible for launching Fogbank Entertainment, has said the following to VentureBeat, a statement Drew himself refers to in his blog, about their upcoming projects:

"FoxNext is committed to developing quality gaming experiences, and Fogbank is going to help us to develop an interactive storytelling platform that allows us to expand on Fox's catalog of entertainment while also developing new, unique fiction. Narrative and story-driven games continue to rank among the top grossing and most downloaded games across industry standards, and we're assembling a team of people dedicating to furthering the form."

So Drew definitely has an exciting future ahead of him. But, as one worried fan wondered on Twitter: won't Drew leaving Bioware have a negative impact on Anthem's story?

With the loss of @DrewKarpyshyn, one of the greatest writers in video games, .@CaseyDHudson .@GambleMike .@Charalanahzard i have some very major concerns about @anthemgame. Will this be a story driven game that @bioware was known for? Because that's why I love your games

According to Casey Hudson, GM at Bioware, the answer is no. Drew had already finished his work on Anthem at the time of his departure, which makes sense as the story needs to be one of the first parts finished, even if fine tuning it is an ongoing process.

Story will always be an important part of every BioWare game. Drew has wrapped up his work on the project, but Anthem's Lead Writers and their teams continue to do amazing work developing the world, story, and characters.

Thanks, GamingBolt.